Jewish Action Fall 2016 - Magazine of the Orthodox Union

Fall 5777/2016

THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

ORTHODOX UNDERSTANDING THE NEW GENERATION

Vol. 77, No. 1 • $5.50

JEWISH ACTION

FALL 5777/2016

THE CHEF’S TABLE 70 Hearty Vegetarian Dishes To Serve In The Sukkah

By Norene Gilletz

SPECIAL SECTION Tribute to a Teacher

50 Miss G. RABBI'S DIARY 8 Politics and the Pulpit: Should Rabbis Discuss Politics in Shul?

By Daniel Korobkin

By Akiva Males

By Estelle Glass

51 Rebbetzin

WELLNESS REPORT 76 Smart School Snacks

By Shira Isenberg

52 Rabbi Simcha Wasserman

80 Rabbi Meir Kahane:

By Numi (Homnick) Stern

BOOKS

By Charles Sheer

12 A Stinging Silence:

His Life and Thought, Volume Two: 1976-1983

By Libby Kahane Reviewed by Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff

Living with Family Estrangement

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

20 Walking with Them in Their Suffering: An Orthodox Woman Chaplain Helps Patients on Their Journeys

By Larry Bernstein

COVER STORY Orthodox Millennials: Understanding the New Generation

26 Rethinking Orthodox Millennials:

A Conversation with Rabbi Ilan Haber

VOL. 77, NO. 1

83 When God is Near

By Rabbi Yehudah Amital Reviewed by Ari Kahn

2 LETTERS

86 Torah and Western Thought:

Intellectual Portraits of Orthodoxy and Modernity Edited by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, Dr. Stuart W. Halpern and Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier Reviewed by Gil S. Perl

4 PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Recognizing Orthodox Support of Israel

By Martin Nachimson

6

CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE

By Gerald M. Schreck

90 Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

32 A Shul of One:

Defining and Understanding Millennials

By Avidan Milevsky

38 The Millennial Community

By Efrem Goldberg

40 Filling the Empty Self:

A Challenge for Millennials

By Aharon Hersh Fried

44 In Their Own Words

Millennials Speak About...

ISRAEL 56 On and Off the Beaten Track in . . .

Eretz Bereshit—Genesis Land In the Footsteps of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs

By Peter Abelow

60 INSIDE THE OU PAGE 12

LEGAL-EASE 92 What’s the Truth About . . . the Age to Study Kabbalah

By Ari Z. Zivotofsky LASTING IMPRESSIONS 96 The Ghosts of Rosh Hashanahs Past

By Devora Jaye

PAGE 20

PAGE 24

PAGE 56

Correction Dr. Norman Goldwasser was mistakenly omitted in the list of Ben Zakkai inductees in the spring 2016 issue of Jewish Action.

Cover: Andres Moncayo 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.

Jewish Action is published by the Orthodox Union • 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004 212.563.4000.

Printed Quarterly—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, plus Special Passover issue. ISSN No. 0447-7049. Subscription: $16.00 per year; Canadian, $20.00; Overseas, $60.00. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Jewish Action, 11 Broadway, New York, NY 10004.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 1

Letters Resisting Assimilation in the 1800s Thank you for the interesting articles on American Jewish families who managed to defy the odds and resist assimilation (“Unbroken Faith” by Bayla Sheva Brenner [spring 2016]). I have an interesting connection to the Henry P. Cohn family profiled in the issue.

My paternal great-greatgrandparents, Jacob Gundersheimer and his wife, Leah Kaufman Gundersheimer, moved from Germany to Richmond, Virginia as a young married couple in the mid-1840s. Several years later, they brought Leah’s sister, Fanny Kaufman, to live with them in Richmond. About one year later, Henry P. Cohn left Germany, moved to Richmond and soon after married his cousin, my great-greatgrandmother’s sister, Fanny.

In the 1860s, Henry P. and Fanny moved to Baltimore. In 1870, Jacob Gundersheimer, then president of the Richmond shul Congregation Beth Ahabah, realized that adoption of Reform rites was inevitable and wanted his son, P.W. Gundersheimer, in a more Orthodox environment. Shortly after his bar mitzvah, P.W. was sent to Baltimore to live with his aunt and uncle, Henry P. and Fanny Cohn. Thus, my father’s side of the family settled in Baltimore, and Jacob and Leah followed sometime later.

I remain in Baltimore and am close friends with my distant cousins, Jeffrey Cohn and Nancy Cohn Broth and their families. They are greatgrandchildren of Henry P. Cohn and first cousins of Bettie Cohn Mandelbaum, who wrote the article in Jewish Action.

c

ROBERT B. LEHMAN, M.D. Baltimore, Maryland c The spring edition of Jewish Action was one of the best. I especially liked the article about American families

2 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

who defied the odds. My parents’ families also came over in the 1800s from Europe, and most of their descendants to this day are still frum. They were friends with several of the families you wrote about, including the Scheinerman, Weberman, Wilhelm, Dicker and Fensterheim families.

My paternal grandmother, Gussie (Chana Golda) Nussbaum, was born and raised in Rochester, New York where her relatives built the first shomer Shabbos department store in the US. She became a buyer for the store and on one of her trips to New York City, she was set up with my paternal grandfather, Izzie Broyde, who lived on the East Side of Manhattan. They married; my grandfather ended up saving the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School from bankruptcy and was a big fundraiser and supporter of the Mir Yeshiva. Many gedolim and meshulachim from Europe stayed in my grandparents’ apartment when they came to New York.

My maternal grandfather, Israel Blau, was known as “Mr. Bikur Cholim” in Boro Park. He and his good friend Max Reisman were among the founders of the Boro Park Bikur Cholim and he was active in what was known as Boro Park’s “Sefardishe Shul” his whole life. My maternal great-grandmother, Fannie Feit, who settled in the US in the 1880s, always wore a sheitel and only drank cholov Yisrael milk. She believed in education and sent all of her eight children to high school and college, which was rare even for secular families at that time.

LEAH BROYDE GRANGEWOOD Jerusalem, Israel

Engaging with the Non-Orthodox My understanding of the Orthodox/non-Orthodox divide differs significantly from that of Allen Fagin (“An Open Letter to Michael Steinhardt,” [summer 2016]). Mr. Fagin argues that the c

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

Editor in Chief Nechama Carmel carmeln@ou.org

Assistant Editor Sara Olson Literary Editor Emeritus Matis Greenblatt Book Editor Rabbi Gil Student Contributing Editors Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein • Dr. Judith Bleich Rabbi Emanuel Feldman • Rabbi Hillel Goldberg Rabbi Sol Roth • Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter Rabbi Berel Wein Editorial Committee Rabbi David Bashevkin • Rabbi Binyamin Ehrenkranz Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer • David Olivestone Gerald M. Schreck • Rabbi Gil Student Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Director, Design & Branding Carrie Beylus Design Deena Katzenstein Advertising Sales Joseph Jacobs Advertising • 201.591.1713 arosenfeld@josephjacobs.org

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ORTHODOX UNION Executive Vice President/Chief Professional Officer Allen I. Fagin Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb Chief Institutional Advancement Officer Arnold Gerson Senior Managing Director Rabbi Steven Weil Director of Marketing and Communications Gary Magder Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer Shlomo Schwartz Chief Human Resources Officer Rabbi Lenny Bessler Chief Information Officer Samuel Davidovics President Martin Nachimson Chairman of the Board Howard Tzvi Friedman Vice Chairman of the Board Mordecai D. Katz Chairman, Board of Governors Henry Rothman Vice Chairman, Board of Governors Gerald M. Schreck Jewish Action Committee Gerald M. Schreck, Chairman Joel M. Schreiber, Chairman Emeritus © Copyright 2016 by the Orthodox Union.

Eleven Broadway, New York, NY 10004.

Telephone 212.563.4000 • www.ou.org.

Modern Orthodox are uniquely placed to engage with the non-Orthodox. I don’t believe this is true.

I have lived as a proud practitioner in each camp: twenty years as a Jewishly ignorant Reform Jew and then over twenty-five years as an Orthodox Jew after becoming a ba’al teshuvah. In my experience, many OU and other programs that are designed to “engage non-observant Jewish youths” meet formidable barriers. Potentially interested youth face pressure from their uninterested friends and from their Jewishly uneducated, antagonistic parents. The hostility exhibited by many non-Orthodox toward the Orthodox creates a real wall.

Mr. Fagin and the OU’s efforts successfully “ignite the fire of Jewish identity” within teens looking for someone to do so. However, they do not address the antagonistic and even hostile non-Orthodox who are not looking to change. This barrier is real and strong. Unfortunately, we don’t yet know how to pierce that barrier to effectively reach the majority of non-Orthodox Jews.

IRWIN (YIRMI) TYLER Spring Valley, New York

Bringing Guns to Shuls Regarding “Gun Control in Halachah” by Rabbi Joshua Flug (summer 2016), I have taken the requisite class, undergone a background check and have been issued a Concealed Carry Permit by the State of Colorado. Therefore, whenever I attend shul I carry a concealed, discrete yet effective handgun. I do so because I do not consider “Never Again” to be merely a cliché. We need to avail ourselves of all legal means possible to protect each other. g c

ED GIETL Denver, Colorado

Jewish Action WINS Rockower Awards

Jewish Action, the quarterly magazine of the Orthodox Union, won two Simon Rockower Awards for work produced in 2015. The magazine’s feature story “Coming Out of Denial: Drug Addiction in the Orthodox Community” won first place in two categories: Award for Excellence in Feature Writing and The Rambam Award for Excellence in Writing About Health Care.

Written by Bayla Sheva Brenner, the article, which appeared in the winter 2015 issue of Jewish Action, explored drug addiction in the Orthodox community as well as the road to rehabilitation. The well-researched article, which included information about drug rehabilitation centers in the US and Israel that are under Orthodox auspices, described how the Orthodox community is more aware of the drug plague.

The prestigious awards, referred to as the “Jewish Pulitzers,” are sponsored by the American Jewish Press Association, which holds a journalism competition for leading Jewish magazines and newspapers from across the country. The entries are judged by a panel of judges with expertise in journalism, writing/ reporting, editing, graphic design and cartooning in both the Jewish and non-Jewish media. This is the fifth year in which Jewish Action has participated in the Rockower Awards competition, and it has been honored in each of the five years.

Allen I. Fagin, OU executive vice president, stated, “These awards attest to the quality in-depth journalism readers have come to expect from Jewish Action.

With one of the largest circulations in Jewish media, Jewish Action continues to remain one of the most intelligent and influential publications in the Orthodox world.”

Gerald M. Schreck, chairman of the Jewish Action Committee, said, “At a time when many popular secular magazines are losing readership, it’s gratifying to know that Jewish Action is being recognized by professionals as a first-class media product.”

In addition to Mr. Schreck, the Jewish Action Editorial Committee includes Rabbi David Bashevkin, Rabbi Binyamin Ehrenkranz, Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, David Olivestone, Rabbi Gil Student and Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 3

President’s Message

By Martin Nachimson

Recognizing Orthodox Support of Israel

T

his past July, I had the privilege, along with a group of high-level OU leaders and supporters, to attend a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. We spent the hour-long meeting, which Prime Minister Netanyahu seemed to genuinely enjoy, informing him who we are, what we represent, and what our relationship is to Israel and to its government.

Having spoken at our convention and having met with our leadership many times, Prime Minister Netanyahu was well aware that the OU is the largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization in the United States, representing hundreds of synagogues and thousands of Orthodox Jews throughout North America. But I don’t believe he realized the incredible breadth and scope of our activities. We explained that the OU is a leader in youth work, reaching 20,000 teenagers annually, and bringing 1,500 young people to Israel each summer to deepen their connection to the Jewish State. We explained our trailblazing efforts to provide social and educational programing for Jews with disabilities as well as our efforts to promote the pro-Israel agenda in Washington, to strengthen Jewish life on college campuses throughout North America and to enhance the lives of Anglo olim, under the aegis of the Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center. Prime Minister Netanyahu seemed truly im4 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

pressed to learn about our multi-faceted array of programs and initiatives.

But the point of the meeting was not simply to keep the Prime Minister abreast of our activities. As we all know, various non-Orthodox organizations are making difficult demands on the Israeli government, and threatening that there will be a major schism within American Jewry if compromises relating to religious integrity are not made. Several such groups recently penned a letter to Prime Minister Netanyahu stating that if their demands are not met, it will have a “serious impact on the vital relationship between the State of Israel and world Jewry.”

We—the Orthodox community—have a fundamentally different approach. We believe it is inappropriate for American organizations to interfere in Israel’s internal policies. We maintain that matters relating to Israeli foreign affairs, national security and religious integrity are best left to the democratic State of Israel and its institutions to decide. In fact, it has been the long-standing policy of the OU not to interfere in Israel’s internal decisions in these arenas.

One of the key messages we conveyed to the Prime Minister is this: Our support for Israel is unconditional. Unconditional means just that—not conditioned on compromising Israeli national security and not conditioned on compromising Israeli religious integrity.

We stand with Israel; whether that means opposing the Iran Deal, fighting the BDS movement, or mobilizing communal, media and US government support for Israel, we are and will continue to be there for Israel.

According to the 2013 study of American Jewry by the Pew Research Center, relative to the non-Orthodox communities, the American Orthodox community feels the strongest connection to the Jewish State.

The study states: Orthodox Jews are more apt than members of other denominations to say they feel very emotionally attached to Israel. This is due to the deep

attachment to Israel felt by Modern Orthodox Jews, 77% of whom say they feel very attached to the Jewish state.

According to the study, Orthodox Jews are more likely than other American Jews to have traveled to Israel—77 percent have done so, significantly more than the non-Orthodox.

It is no secret that the overwhelming majority of Anglo olim are Orthodox. As Modern Orthodox Jews, we imbue our children with a sense of the historical and religious significance of the Jewish State— and we make aliyah a priority. We believe that Eretz Yisrael is our God-given land, and that our right to the land is rooted in the Torah. And while some of us are not yet able to make Israel our permanent home, it is our hope and our dream to do so one day.

We invest in Israel by purchasing homes and property in the country, by spending substantial parts of the year there, by sending our children to study and to live there, and by traveling there extensively. Israel is a centerpiece and a focal point of our lives.

It is in our minds and in our hearts—always.

But—and this was another key message we wanted to convey to Prime Minister Netanyahu—our unwavering support needs to be recognized and acknowledged.

We not only represent a significant portion of American Jewry—we represent one of fastest-growing segments of American Jewry. American Orthodoxy is dynamic, vibrant and growing. Thus, when Israeli officials meet with American Jewish leaders to discuss matters impacting relations with American Jewry, we must be present.

The non-Orthodox organizations do not represent us or our views. We are proud of our fervent and ongoing support for Medinat Yisrael, but our voice must be heard.

We want to deepen our relationship with the Israeli government not to dictate their policies and decisions but to partner with them to help achieve our mutual goals: to promote the peace and welfare of Am Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael. g

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Chairman’s Message

I

n response to a recent column of mine, I received a letter from a reader who was somewhat upset that I expressed admiration for a gadol who identified with the Chareidi world, and presented him as a role model for my grandchildren. “The idea that a proper role model [for the Modern Orthodox world] is a Chareidi rav is why Modern Orthodoxy in the United States is in trouble,” stated the writer.

While I certainly understand the letter writer’s admiration for rabbinic leaders and roshei yeshivah who share his positions regarding the State of Israel and other important matters, I view things somewhat differently.

Readers of this column know that I frequently reminisce about Williamsburg, but in responding to this reader, I can think of no better way to illustrate my point than by drawing upon the neighborhood of my youth.

I personally have little use for terms such as “Chareidi” and “Modern Orthodox” (although I easily fit into both camps with my black hat and Yeshiva University education). Such labels simply did not exist when I was growing up in Williamsburg in the fifties. Jews of all stripes found a haven in this very tolerant, Jewishly diverse neighborhood. At Torah Vodaath, my classmates came from all kinds of

By Gerald M. Schreck

homes, but the principal of the middle school at the time, Rabbi Dovid Bender, a”h, was a prince of inclusion. He made all of us—those from rabbinic families as well as those from irreligious families— feel equally accepted and loved.

At the time, Williamsburg was a community of survivors. While my friends and I were American born, we were surrounded by Jews who emerged from horror of the Holocaust and had lost everything in the European inferno.

Everything but hope.

They came to these shores determined to rebuild, to start again.

We didn’t need to hear terms such as “achdut” or “Jewish unity.” We were surrounded by greatness—and we knew it. Consciously or not, we knew that we too had a role to play in rebuilding Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust. Our love for our fellow Jews burned strong— and, even as kids, we understood that we were living in historic times, that we were somehow plucked by destiny to help rebuild our shattered people.

Chassidic rebbes whose courts had been decimated in Europe began trickling into Williamsburg as well. On Friday nights, the streets would be teeming with fathers and sons heading to various tisches. Did it matter that most of us were not Chassidim? Not in the least. I recall one particular Simchat Torah when I attended Consciously or not, we knew that we too had a role to play in rebuilding Jewish life in the aftermath of the Holocaust. the Satmar Rebbe’s shul. I was wearing a light-colored jacket, my conspicuously non-Chassidic attire clearly broadcasting my more modern roots. But within a few minutes, I was pulled into the Rebbe’s inner circle of dancers, and we danced that night with a passion and an intensity that I cannot forget.

Some may accuse me of romanticizing Williamsburg. I don’t believe I am.

But there is no question in my mind that

if there is one thing that contemporary Orthodoxy needs it’s an infusion of acceptance, tolerance and ahavat Yisrael—an ahavah that transcends ideological differences and superficial boundaries. I thank the letter writer for taking the time to share his thoughts and for giving me the opportunity to express my views about the need for greater achdut and acceptance.

Emphasizing these same themes of acceptance and tolerance, writer Bayla Sheva Brenner explores the painful subject of family estrangement in this Rosh Hashanah issue.

Delving into the difficult situations that tear families apart, Bayla Sheva’s beautifully crafted article, which covers the timely topics of forgiveness and reconciliation, features the diverse perspectives of rabbis, therapists and estranged family members themselves.

In this jam-packed issue, we also get to meet Heda Margo, an Orthodox woman chaplain— only a handful of Orthodox women are boardcertified chaplains—who spends her days providing spiritual support and care to patients at a Manhattan hospital. In the profile by writer Larry Bernstein, chaplain Rabbi Daniel Coleman is quoted as saying that women are “inherently gifted with the qualities that are at the heart of professional chaplaincy;” a staunch supporter of female chaplains, Rabbi Coleman is dedicated to encouraging Orthodox women to pursue this rewarding profession.

With the advent of the technological era, the “generation gap” seems to be ever widening. Thus, this issue is devoted to defining and understanding a fascinating cohort: Orthodox millennials. To better understand them, our writers asked a number of penetrating questions including: what are the unique characteristics of millennials? How do these characteristics impact religious life?

What are the particular challenges facing Orthodox millennials on campus? We hope this is the beginning of a longer conversation, and that you, our readers, will contribute your own thoughts and opinions at www.ou.org/ jewish_action.

Wishing all of you a ketivah vachatimah tovah! g

Gerald M. Schreck is chairman of the Jewish Action Committee and vice chairman of the OU Board of Governors.

6 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

O N O R

Rabbi's Diary

AND

Daniel Korobkin Rabbi N. Daniel Korobkin, MA, MS, is morah d’atra of Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto Congregation (“the BAYT”). He is the author of an annotated translation of The Kuzari: In Defense of the Despised Faith (New York, 2013).

J

ohn Locke, the seventeenth-century social philosopher, first wrote about the need for a separation of church and state. He argued that the state should separate itself from the church, not the other way around.1 The sole role of government, he felt, is to protect its citizens’ rights from being violated by others and not to impose morality. But there’s every reason for the church to remain attached to the state. The church provides the state with a vital flow of citizens who are rooted in the very morality and virtue that the state is not equipped to provide.

Which leads to the question of the day: should a rabbi be discussing politics in shul? Absolutely and resoundingly, yes. A Judaism that limits itself to halachic issues like Shabbat or the kashrut status of a fleishig spoon that fell into a milchig pot dangerously minimizes the Torah’s significance. As members of the larger society, and as a nation that is expected by our Creator to be a positive influence

8 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

upon that society, it is our duty to stay abreast of and be part of the social and political fabric of our time. As religious Jews, just as we view our own lives and activities through a prism of Torah, so should we view the world around us with that very same perspective.

Some rabbis may be fearful of discussing politics lest they face fallout or rejection.

But their fears are unfounded. Many congregants are looking for religious guidance in the political sphere, and the

As members of the larger society, and as a nation that is expected by our Creator to be a positive influence upon that society, it is our duty to stay abreast of and be part of the social and political fabric of our time. proper responses to current events are almost always found in the Torah. As the Mishnah states, “Hafoch bah, v’hafoch bah, d’kulah vah! “Turn the Torah over and over, for everything is contained within it.”2 If we

listen to the political pundits on Fox News and CNN, whose opinions are informed by their own biases and preconceived notions, surely we’ll want to listen to what our rabbi, whose opinion is enlightened by the Torah, has to say.

During election cycles, political discussions become more delicate and dicey. But here as well, the rabbi should not shy away from discussing the important political issues. He should provide his congregants with a weighted list of priorities and guidelines that will enable them to decide more wisely which candidate will best be able to deliver on those issues. This list might include such priorities as a strong State of Israel, reducing crime and civil unrest, creating a strong economy with ample jobs and productivity, dealing compassionately with the immigrant crisis and the perseverant courage to combat terrorism and other threats to democracy.

But the rabbi should fall short of endorsing political candidates. Endorsing candidates from the pulpit is the “third rail” of rabbinics. Besides the legal considerations of endorsements by a member of a non-profit organization

If we listen to the political pundits on Fox News and CNN, whose opinions are informed by their own biases and preconceived notions, surely we’ll want to listen to what our rabbi, whose opinion is enlightened by the Torah, has to say.

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(consult with your shul’s lawyer), there are some very practical reasons why a rabbi should not be making political endorsements.

For one thing, it is rare for one candidate to emerge clearly and unequivocally superior for both society and the Jewish people while the other candidates emerge as being entirely wrong. It may be unwise for a religious leader to put all his eggs in one basket. Past candidates who presented themselves as being strong, say, on supporting Israel have so often proven to be fickle and disappointing. Our sages warned us about not investing too much in our politicians because they realized that regardless of campaign promises, politicians act for themselves first and for everyone else second.3 Even Rabbi Akiva was mistaken in choosing Bar Kochba as the Messiah.4 During the French invasion of Russia in 1812, the great Chassidic leaders were at odds as to which side to support.

Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Berditchev, Rabbi Yisrael (“the Maggid”) of Koznitz and other great rabbis supported Napoleon, feeling that he would free the Jews from Czarist anti-Semitism and oppression. But Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, supported Czar Alexander I, arguing that while Napoleon might free the Jews from their physical shackles, he’d also “enlighten” them and free them from their religious strictures as well. Today, generations later, can anyone say with certainty which ruler was better for the Jews?

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But even more compelling than the lack of a crystal ball, a rabbi would be well advised to avoid endorsing candidates because in the end he will invariably estrange himself from a number of his constituents. He needs to be everyone’s rabbi. At a life-cycle event such as a wedding or God forbid, a funeral, each and every family that is part of the shul must feel comfortable and close with their rav. But if last week the very right-leaning rabbi left a very Democratic family with resentful feelings because of his endorsement, this would create an undue strain on that feeling of closeness, and the rabbi’s ability to be a source of comfort and guidance could be compromised as a result. Politics should never get in the way of the rabbi’s safe space and approachability.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the rabbi must be careful not to overstep his privilege. The rabbi is a spiritual guide and mentor, not a religious dictator. The greatest mentors are those who foster independent thinking and decision-making.

A good rabbi respects his congregants’ independent ability to think critically and come up with their own conclusions after weighing all the factors, be they religious or secular.

Of course, if a congregant approaches the rabbi privately and asks for his opinion, the rabbi may choose, at his discretion, to reveal which candidate appears to be best at the moment. But that’s quite different from a wholesale endorsement from the pulpit.

In our weekly Shabbat blessing for the United States (or Canada), we pray that Hashem imbue our leaders with proper wisdom and counsel. Amidst all the uncertainty of the current US election cycle, perhaps even more important than discussing politics, the rabbi would do well to lead his congregation in kavanah-filled prayers for the future safety and well-being of this great country and the Jewish people.

THE

Notes 1. See Locke’s “A Letter Concerning Toleration” (1689) and “The Second Treatise on Civil Government” (1690).

2. Pirkei Avot 5:25 3. See Avot d’Rebbe Natan, vol. 2, chap. 22.

4. See Talmud Yerushalmi, Taanit 4:5.

Listen to Rabbi Korobkin discuss rabbis and politics at: www.ou.org/life/community/savitsky_korobkin/.

Akiva Males Rabbi Akiva Males began serving as rabbi of the Young Israel of Memphis in the summer of 2016. Prior to that, he served as a pulpit rabbi in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

In this heated election cycle, it is hard to find anyone lacking deeply held political opinions. That is precisely why I believe it is in the best interests of pulpit rabbis to keep their political views to themselves. It’s simply a bad idea for a synagogue rabbi to become clearly identified as politically blue or red.

Becoming an outspoken supporter or opponent of any one political candidate or party can end up jeopardizing a synagogue’s non-profit—otherwise known as its 501(c)(3)—status. According to the IRS web site: 10 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

. . . Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes . . . . 1 Moreover, becoming an outspoken supporter or opponent of any one political candidate or party limits a rabbi’s ability to reach the greatest number of Jews possible.

Every pulpit rabbi hopes to create a shul atmosphere wherein as many Jews as possible will feel welcome and comfortable.

Surely, this is based on Hillel’s teaching in Pirkei Avot (1:12): “Strive to be counted among the disciples of Aaron—love peace and pursue peace, love all people and draw them nearer to the Torah.”

Knowing people take their politics so seriously, why would we want to risk limiting our ability to share the vibrancy of our Torah with as many Jews as possible?

We want all of our Jewish brothers and sisters—no matter which lever they pull in the privacy of the voting booth—to feel they have a home in our synagogues.

This isn’t simply because congregations hope to increase their membership rosters. As Torah-observant Jews, we truly believe that each and every Jew’s life will be enriched by our Torah and mitzvot, which will in turn benefit the entire Jewish people. Let us never forget that sharing the beauty of our Torah with each member of Am Yisrael is our ultimate goal.

Knowing people take their politics so seriously, why would we want to risk limiting our ability to share the vibrancy of our Torah with as many Jews as possible? In today’s politically charged atmosphere, if a synagogue’s rabbi is outspoken with his political opinions, he will inevitably alienate some wonderful Jews who differ in their politics from his sphere of influence. I have seen passionate shul-goers on both ends of the political spectrum walk away from congregations where they had spent years of their lives after feeling that their candidates or political parties were disrespected.

Furthermore, taking sides politically limits a rabbi’s effectiveness outside of shul. Congregational rabbis have important roles to play in matters affecting the community, both Jewish (locally, nationally and in Israel) and nonJewish. Some of those whom we need to work with on those issues surely harbor different political opinions.

Pragmatism dictates that wherever possible, we not allow politics to get in the way of achieving our goals.

This idea is readily apparent to anyone familiar with the important work of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee). In explaining their great efforts to remain bipartisan in March of 2016, AIPAC’s Executive Director Howard Kohr remarked, “Now, there are those who question our bipartisan approach to political advocacy, but unless any one party controls the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives—and controls them forever—bipartisanship is the only way to create stable, sustainable policy from one election to the next.”2 In today’s heated political environment, if we wear our politics on our sleeves, we may end up turning those who could have been important allies into unnecessary adversaries. Why would anyone choose to undermine their own efforts?

The Jewish community has plenty of people and institutions well-suited to express political opinions.

Synagogue rabbis, however, should remain politically pareve.

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Family Matters

A Stinging Silence:

Living with Family Estrangement

By Bayla Sheva Brenner

I

t’s been two years since Shani has had any contact with her younger sister.

She noticed the distancing shortly after her mother passed away. First the unanswered phone calls.

Then the two-word text responses and the bare bones, business tone e-mails.

Then, nothing.

“I’m still baffled as to why she’s chosen to cut me out of her life,” says Shani. “At times I wonder if I had a sister at all. Maybe, like an imaginary friend, this too was just

an illusion. But then it wouldn’t hurt so much.”

Sadly, Shani’s story of family estrangement is not unique in the Orthodox community. Blood may be thicker than water, but like the Red Sea, apparently it too can part.

What compels family members to sever ties?

“The person who is making the choice to reject a family member is convinced that he or she is right,” says Rabbi Simcha Feuerman, LCSW, senior director of operations and strategic development at Ohel Children’s Home

and Family Services, based in Brooklyn, New York.

“They’re saying ‘he or she is so impossible, so abusive, so disrespectful; I have no choice but to have nothing to do with them.’ [Meanwhile] the rejected party says, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong; why is he rejecting me? I don’t have the problem.

He does.’”

There’s something about the familial connection that, when broken, shakes us to the core. The people we grew up with, to whom we mumbled countless “good mornings,” become part of who we are and how we define our place in the world. When cut off from family, one feels a constant void.

“If you took an MRI of a person who is experiencing social ostracism, the same pain center would light up in the brain as when a person experiences physical

Bayla Sheva Brenner is a freelance writer and a regular contributor to Jewish Action. She can be reached at baylasheva@outlook.com.

12 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

pain,” says Rabbi Feuerman. “We are hardwired to place a lot of importance on what our immediate circle thinks about us.”

Between Mother and Daughter

However, family members in these situations are not always seeking a resolution.

“Whether it be siblings, adult children or parents, if they’ve chosen to cut themselves off from the family or family members, it’s because they feel [the situation is so untenable] it’s the only thing they can do,” says Rabbi Feuerman.

Five years ago Rachel cut off all communication with her mother. She blocked her from her phone and e-mail. When her mother tried to reach her through her husband’s e-mail, she blocked her from that as well. She saw it as the only way to get out of

“

We are hardwired to place a lot of importance on what our immediate circle thinks about us.”

what she perceived as an “unsafe relationship.”

“I grew up thinking I was a horrible person,” says Rachel. “My mother called me a ‘bad daughter.’ She told me I was cold. I never understood why. Already at thirteen I wanted to kill myself; I thought I was so worthless.”

Despite her rough childhood, Rachel managed to construct a semblance of a normal life; she married and started raising her own family. But as her family grew, each new child, instead of bringing her closer to her mom, only increased the tension between them. “Here I was feeling vulnerable, having just given birth, and my mother would turn on me like I did something wrong,” says Rachel.

She found herself falling into serious depression and sought professional help. “I realized in therapy that this was a no-win relationship for me. My mother

resented my having children. She expected me to parent her. I had to separate.”

Rachel asked her rav if it was halachically permissible for her to stop speaking with her mother. He told her, “Let’s see you get better.

You need to be well and then we’ll talk about what you could do for your parents.”

She decided to allow her mother to have annual visits with her grandchildren. Her husband would play host while Rachel made herself scarce, spending the day with a friend. The night before one of the visits, Rachel’s mother asked her son-in-law if she could see Rachel for a few minutes when she arrived.

It pushed a button.

“This is exactly the problem! She doesn’t respect any boundaries.”

Rachel e-mailed her mother a warning that if she broke the rules, the visits would be over. She doesn’t see the estrangement as a permanent state of affairs, but maintains that

Torah lecturer and rav of Moshav Matityahu in Israel, describes how jealousy removes one from the world of reality and causes one to view people and incidents in a distorted fashion.

“My [younger] sister hated me from the minute she was born,” says Talia, who hasn’t spoken to her sister in fifteen years. “It’s not like I was a better or smarter kid; she just always felt threatened by me. Unless my parents’ praise was all directed at her and nothing positive was directed at me, she was bothered.”

During their college years, Talia continued to feel her sister’s animus.

“She was actually a much better student than I was. I was fine with it, but she pushed herself even harder to make sure she outdid me.” Talia hoped that when they grew up the sibling issues would subside. They didn’t.

When her sister gave birth to her second child, Talia came to help her out, hoping to build a bridge. She made meals for the family, cleaned

the door to any genuine emotional the house and prepared for the shul connection “closed many years ago.” kiddush in honor of the baby girl.

Throughout her stay she detected coldness from her sister and brothThe Sibling Stand Off er-in-law. At the kiddush, when her The tragic wedge between Yosef and brother-in-law publicly thanked his brothers recorded in the Torah led everyone who assisted his wife and to dire consequences from which the him, he noticeably neglected to menJewish people continue to suffer. Rab- tion Talia. beinu Yonah asserts that the baseless The following week, Talia called hatred that caused the destruction of to ask her sister why she and her the Second Beit Hamikdash was, in husband had seemed hostile tofact, rooted in the jealousy of Yosef’s wards her during the visit; she brothers. Chazal tell us that jealousy asked, was there anything she had removes a person from the world. Ex- done to offend her? “She told me plaining the meaning behind Chazal’s that I had criticized her husband, statement, Rabbi Zev Leff,1 popular which of course I hadn’t,” says Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 13

Talia. “She then informed me that they didn’t want to have anything to do with me.”

Even her parents began viewing Talia as the instigator and her sister as victim. “Instead of trying to find ways to bring us together, they enabled my sister’s abusive behavior,” she says. “When my sister refused to invite me to my niece’s bat mitzvah celebration, my mother actually encouraged me to send a nice gift with an apology note for not being able to attend. They don’t want to deal with any possible confrontation between my sister and me.”

Talia has since stopped talking to her parents. “I’ve tried so hard. I can’t risk being a punching bag anymore.”

The Root Causes

Festering resentments also tend to surface when parents pass on.

Rabbi Moshe Weinberger, rav of Congregation Aish Kodesh in Woodmere, New York, reports that at least once a month he gets a call

“

I once dealt with brothers who survived the Holocaust and hadn’t spoken to each other in forty years.

It’s heartbreaking.”

Bob, a secular Jew, and his ba’al teshuvah brother haven’t spoken in over twenty years. It wasn’t Bob’s choice; his brother broke off all contact soon after he became frum. “[Before the estrangement], when we spoke it always turned into a heated debate,” says Bob. “He kept trying to convince me to believe what he believed, when he knew I considered myself an atheist.”

He suspects that the true motivation for his brother’s brushoff stems from a deep-seated rage.

“I’m sure I wasn’t the best brother while we were growing up,” he says.

“Like most siblings, we fought. He won’t let go of his resentment towards me. Now he can view me as a ‘bad Jew.’” In his twenty-four years as a pulpit rabbi, Rabbi Weinberger has seen how people resort to religion to justify distancing family members.

“At the core, [when siblings distance themselves from each other] it’s not a theological struggle; it has to do with emotional issues,” says Rabbi Weinberger. “There’s an erosion of relationships between people who used to love each other. I once dealt with brothers who survived the Holocaust and hadn’t spoken to each other in forty years.

It’s heartbreaking.”

More than a few decades have passed since Bob and his brother

have spoken, yet Bob still holds out hope for reconciliation. “It’s only the two of us; we have no other siblings. You get older and parents age; siblings become very important.” He sends his brother e-mails on the chance he’ll respond one day. “It would be good to have a brother to talk to.”

Choosing Between Spouse and Family

As the adage goes, when you marry your spouse, you’re marrying his or her family. If a wife or husband finds their spouse’s family of origin intolerable, it could lead to the breakup of a family.

It took a divorce to reunite David and his birth family, with whom he hadn’t spoken for close to ten years.

He says he felt compelled to cut off ties. With every family get-together he felt torn. “Who leaves their spouse alone on yom tov?” he asks. “My ex-wife kept insisting that my family members were all nasty to her and she refused to see them. Deep down, I knew this wasn’t going to end well.”

David laments his decision to part ways with his immediate family, leaving his son without half of his grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins for most of his childhood.

“Before my marriage, I was very close with my nieces. One told me in tears that she lost out on the ‘fun uncle.’ I don’t know if you can rectify stuff like this. It was a hole in her heart for all those years.

“When a person gets married, there are multiple relationships going on,” David continued. “Often, people have unrealistic expectations of one another. I should have been more confident in drawing better boundaries. I can’t just throw my family away. That’s not acceptable, even in a marriage. No one should ever opt for this.”

Rabbi Feuerman says that parents who prefer to lose family members rather than lose face communicate continued on page 16

about a quarrel having to do with a family inheritance. “There are feelings of ‘my parents favored this one over me’ or that he or she didn’t live up to the parents’ expectations.

What confirms that is the will,” he says. “The one who felt from the beginning that he was treated in an inferior way pounces on this as an opportunity to finally address grievances that go back before the existence of the will. I’ve seen siblings completely write each other off as a result of a disagreement over a will.

It’s devastating.” Rabbi Weinberger frequently consults with mental health professionals on the countless cases that come to his door.

Rather than face their feelings of resentment head-on, some people prefer to hide behind a pretext.

14 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

The Art of Forgiveness: A Halachic Guide

By Daniel Feldman

• Someone who has aggrieved his fellow Jew is obligated to seek that person’s forgiveness. Without doing so, Yom Kippur will not bring atonement.

• Even if the victim has indicated a willingness to forgive, it is still necessary for the offender to ask.

• If the attempt is unsuccessful, the offender must try a different approach to seek forgiveness, asking as many as three times.

Rabbi Daniel Feldman is the spiritual leader of Ohr Saadya in Teaneck, New Jersey, and a rosh yeshivah at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University.

• Ideally, the request for forgiveness should be made face to face, rather than through an intermediary or a letter (or a text message).

• The point of the apology is not only so that the victim releases any claims, but to restore the harmony of the relationship.

• If the victim does not know of the offense (for example, if lashon hara was spoken about him without his knowledge), many halachic authorities maintain that the offender should not inform the victim so that he can ask forgiveness; rather, attempts should be made to undo the offense without informing the victim.

• If the offender has sincerely apologized and has made all possible efforts to rectify the offense, it is proper for the victim not to withhold forgiveness, under most circumstances.

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continued from page 14 unhealthy messages about the nature of relationships to their children. What’s worse, the tendency to cut off family members can be passed on.

“Family attitudes perpetuate themselves,” says Rabbi Feuerman. “There’s an inability to deal with conflict; it’s much easier to blame others and emotional retreat is seen as a viable solution. It’s not healthy.”

The Fine Art of Forgiving

When someone seriously wrongs us, the last thing we want to do is forgive them. Our pride can’t bear it. Or so we think.

“It all depends on each party’s readiness to see through the other’s eyes,” says Dr. David Pelcovitz, renowned psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University. “The most important part is to realize that neither side is one hundred percent wrong or one hundred percent right. Though we find excuses for our own errors, we tend to judge others more harshly and are reluctant to forgive.”

Dr. Pelcovitz emphasizes that the key to promoting forgiveness is exploring each side’s role in the discord.

He suggests a popular “speaker-listener” technique used by marital therapists to facilitate communication, in which both sides take turns in the role of speaker and listener. When the speaker has the floor, he voices his feelings and concerns, and then stops to allow the listener to paraphrase in his own words what he heard.

The listener is not to refute or offer his own opinions or perspectives, since he will have his turn to speak.

“The Tiferes Yisroel says your friends will always tell you what you want to hear, but you are not necessarily going to grow from that,” says Dr. Pelcovitz. “It’s from your critics that you grow the most. And you’ll feel great afterwards, benefitting from owning your part [in the conflict].”

Thou Shalt Apologize

Forgiving is not only a nice thing to do; it’s a halachic obligation.

“Granting forgiveness is as mandatory as requesting it,” says Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman, a rosh yeshivah at Yeshiva University’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and spiritual leader of Ohr Saadya in Teaneck, New Jersey. “The Mishnah states that ‘one may not be cruel and refuse to forgive.’”

16 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

An author of several sefarim on human relationships, Rabbi Feldman points out in his book The Right and the Good: Halakhah and Human Relations, that the imperative is to repeatedly seek mechilah (forgiveness). He notes that the Shulchan Aruch states that an unsuccessful attempt to reconcile demands a second and then a third try, employing a different approach each time. “[With each failed attempt], he needs to address what may have been missing,” says Rabbi Feldman. “It is a growth process for the offender.

Many rabbinic scholars state that the operative element is the embarrassment experienced, which itself serves as part of the atonement.”

The Talmud states that in regard to interpersonal violations, even if they are also considered an affront against God, the transgressions won’t be pardoned on Yom Kippur until amends are made and the aggrieved party is appeased.

Professional Peace Makers

In estrangement cases where the peace efforts of mental health professionals, rabbanim and

well-meaning friends have failed, an unassuming Chassidic woman is successfully reuniting family members.

For the past seven years, Sarah Friedman, a Jewish educator from

“

Parents who prefer to lose family members rather than lose face communicate unhealthy messages about the nature of relationships to their children.

Boro Park, has tackled family battles most would find daunting. With an uncanny knack for making shalom, Friedman claims a 50 percent success rate, easily competing with highly skilled professional mediators and therapists. Plus, she offers her services for free.

Friedman discovered her capacity for chipping away at hardened resentments after her own extended family experienced several tragedies. She turned to a rav for

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 17

the levaya, his brother-in-law broke down sobbing uncontrollably. He and the deceased had not been on speaking terms for over ten years. He couldn’t forgive himself. He kept saying, ‘What did I do to myself? Did I really think we would both live forever?’

“I ask [the parties involved in a conflict], ‘Are you happy living your life never speaking to your sister again?’ No one has yet told me yes, they would like things to stay this way until 120. Deep down, they are upset about it.”

However, in certain situations reconciliation is not the best answer. Rabbi Weinberger reports having had to advise separation, at least temporarily, between siblings or between parents and children. “[Although] my goal is always reconciliation,” says Rabbi Weinberger, “when the relationship is causing a breakdown of a person’s life, when he or she is being diminished as a human being and it becomes clear that one or both of the parties is extremely unhealthy, sometimes it is necessary to disengage.”

Coming to Terms with the Silence

guidance, who told her that unresolved disputes in a family can cause many tzarot. Determined to resolve the conflict in her own family, she relied on instinct, compassion and everyday wisdom to appeal to the family members involved in the rift.

She surprised herself at the positive results. The story got out and her phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

“I’ve always had a gift for listening to others’ problems,” she says. “People like to tell me their troubles. It’s really listening and validating their pain. I don’t judge or say anything until I hear both sides. There are actually three sides to a story: side one, side two and what really happened.”

Friedman goes back and forth between the opposing parties, making as many phone calls as it takes to validate both parties’ feelings and present the other side’s perspective.

She often asks the disgruntled one to list the three main points bothering him or her and relay them back to the other. It can take months before she brings the family members to a mutually satisfying meeting of minds. It doesn’t sound much 18 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

different from what a therapist would do, but Friedman is somehow able to penetrate the most resolute wall of pride.

“I do it l’shem mitzvah [for the sake of a mitzvah],” says Friedman.

“I think that’s why I get so much siyata d’Shamaya [Divine assistance].”

She rarely gives up on a conflict, though Friedman reports that half the time an angry family member will hang up on her before they even make it to first base.

“Many people can’t tolerate being told they’ve done something wrong,” she says. “I tell them I totally understand their point of view, but to also consider that in every disagreement each side is a little bit wrong and a little bit right. Would they be willing to apologize for the small percentage of what they may have done wrong?”

When someone insists on being the right one, she pulls out a particularly tragic story from her peace-making arsenal.

“A young man in his forties passed away very suddenly,” she relates. “At

Sometimes Shani sees her sister appear in her dreams. She wakes up feeling comforted from the renewed, albeit imaginary, sense of connection with her sibling.

“I guess I’m just a prisoner of hope,” she says.

“When I see someone in the supermarket who resembles my sister, I find myself staring at this perfect stranger, not wanting to let go of the image. There’s this longing inside me that won’t quit.”

In an attempt to understand why her sister went AWOL on her, she recently sent her another e-mail: “We’re sisters. Why have you chosen to delete me from your life?” Her sister’s delayed response stated simply, “You should know.”

“It can’t be jealousy; she did everything right,” says Shani. “She graduated from a top school, married young and gave my parents five grandchildren. I’m the one who’s struggled to get my life together. Why would the golden girl resent the black sheep?” “[After our mother’s death], it was a harrowing time for all of us,” says Shani. “Maybe my sister was displeased with the division of the estate. I suspect it’s much deeper than that. Sometimes, early in the morning, I lie in bed mining for memories of us—as children, teenagers and our respective adult stages in life. I think she always kept a distance from me.

Perhaps I threaten her in some way that she’s not even aware of. I may never know. But like a missing appendage, I’m constantly reminded of the loss. It’s just something I’ve got to learn to live with.”

Then again, where there is life there is hope.

Rabbi Weinberger reports having had “tremendous nachas” reuniting estranged family members. “When dealing with people who are working on themselves, who are prepared to step down and acknowledge that they’ve made mistakes, the vast majority of them, with much crying and hugging, will reconcile.” g

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Profile

Synagogue Life

A

fter the ways of God you should walk . . . [that is,] to emulate His attributes . . . . Just as God visits the sick, as it is written, ‘And Hashem saw [Avraham] on the plains of Mamre,’ so should you [visit the sick] (Sotah 14a).

Margo Heda, staff chaplain at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in Manhattan, is inspired by this imperative every day. “Chaplains are spiritual ‘accompaniers,’ and we try to assist patients through a number of avenues,” says Heda, a mother of two teenage boys from Northern New Jersey. “It’s a privilege and a mitzvah to walk a few steps with a patient on his or her journey.” Heda has been working as a chaplain at HSS since 2012.

Heda, who has master’s degrees in Jewish education and in music, sometimes uses song to connect to and soothe her patients. In her work helping patients and their families cope with illness, loss, grief and transition, Heda has seen that music has the power to “change the air in the room.” She was once working with a dying patient, and the woman’s breathing was belabored. While talking to the family members present, who were struggling with their own pain and grief, Heda found out that the patient loved Yiddish music.

Heda began to softly sing a Yiddish lullaby; after a few moments, to her surprise, the woman’s breathing became calmer and more relaxed. Another time Heda sang to a patient who was considered unresponsive. While she sang, she suddenly noticed the patient appeared to be crying.

Prior to becoming a chaplain, Heda spent a few years running a therapeutic music program for the frail elderly and those afflicted with dementia. “Working with this population influenced me greatly with regard to the power of music,” she says. “Often those with severe memory issues came alive when I led them in song, remembering lyrics and getting up to dance. It was remarkably transforming.”

Chaplains serve in many different arenas including prisons, the military, senior care or extended care facilities, the corporate world, sports teams and hospitals. Heda knew she wanted to work in a hospital because “people in a hospital are in an especially vulnerable position.” She works with patients, their families and the staff. “To quote my first teacher, I walk a little way with them in their suffering.” Heda also oversees kashrut, bikur cholim and Jewish pro-

Photos courtesy of HealthCare Chaplaincy Network Larry Bernstein is a freelance writer from Fair Lawn, New Jersey.

20 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

gramming at the hospital. Jewish chaplains, explains Heda, stands them, and listen empathetically,” says Rabbi Coleman. need an advanced level of Jewish education and clinical chap- “In the ICU, there’s no such thing as a superficial conversation.”

The patients Heda works with come from different relilaincy training; they do not require semichah.

What a chaplain does in a hospital varies by the facility. HSS gions and backgrounds. But Heda adds, “Chaplains are not to uses a unit-based model. In this approach, a chaplain could see push religious beliefs on anyone. It would be malpractice to do any and all patients in a particular unit, irrespective of their so.” While working with a Muslim patient who did not know religious affiliation. Heda visits those patients who request to English, Heda needed a translator. During one session, the transsee a chaplain as well as those referred by staff. “I’m there to lator warned Heda, “Muslims often do not like to pray with accompany the patient where he or she is at that time.” Heda people of other faiths.” Having worked with the patient in the adheres to the philosophy of chaplaincy which views the patient past, Heda was confident that she could be of help during this as a “living human document,” which means it is her job to study visit as well. At the end of the visit, the patient’s son said to Heda, and learn about the person in order to figure out how to best “There are two suns in New York—one that shines in the sky, understand and help him or her. “We start with the individual,” and you who are shining for my family.” For Heda, this experience says Heda. She strives to hear the patients’ voices, fears and emphasized how spiritual care can transcend cultural and religious boundaries. struggles, as well as their sources of meaning and strength.

When visiting with Jewish patients, Heda lets them know that While Heda is one of a few Orthodox women to be board she is Jewish too, because certified as a chaplain, she believes that they often assume chaplaincy is a place where Orthodox “In the ICU, there’s no that chaplain means such thing as a superfinon-Jewish clergy. She cial conversation.” finds that Jews are afraid they are “going to be evangelized.” She makes it clear, however, that she is not a rabbi. Once trust and rapport have been established and people understand that she is not there to push a particular point of view, Heda has no problem identifying herself as a Modern Orthodox Jew if patients ask about her religious affiliation. With her more observant Jewish patients, Heda describes herself as a “Klal Yisrael-nik.”

“This usually gets me some looks of confusion, and I have to repeat it more than once until people understand what I am saying,” says Heda. “It’s not a common label, but it’s one I connect Margo Heda meets with a patient at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. to deeply.”

Neshama: the National Association women can make a significant difference. It’s a gender-neutral of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC) sets certification standards and activity and there are no halachic barriers. In fact, Heda is cur- certifies qualified Jewish chaplains. Cecille Allman Asekoff, the rently mentoring a Satmar woman who aspires to be a chaplain, executive vice president who has worked with NAJC for twenand she would welcome the opportunity to work with more ty-five years, says the organization is part of a multi-faith colOrthodox women. laborative of professional chaplaincy groups of North Rabbi Daniel Coleman is a board-certified chaplain trained in America. Together, these groups developed common ethical, the art of providing quality spiritual support. He is the spiritual educational and certification requirements for professional chapcaregiver at North Shore University Hospital located in New laincy. However, each organization is able to add to the common York’s Long Island, and is the only full-time chaplain at the standards and obligations. For example, NAJC added a Jewish massive hospital. Though he spends time each day working with education and theological component to Jewish chaplaincy the hospital staff and in the ICU, Rabbi Coleman says that there’s requirements. Asekoff notes, “We certify Jewish chaplains and no such thing as a typical day. “My job,” he says, “is primarily not chaplains who happen to be Jewish.” listening.” This is in contrast with the role a pulpit rabbi may To be a Jewish chaplain, one must have advanced Jewish play when visiting a congregant. Rabbi Coleman says a rabbi or education or its equivalent and be competent with rituals and clergy member is often perceived as having a specific agenda, texts. To become board certified, one must complete four 400such as encouraging emunah, doing mitzvot or being a defense hour units of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) classes. lawyer for God. Not so with a chaplain. “I can sit with a patient According to Asekoff, the CPE units are intense and challengin times when he or she may feel lonely or that no one under- ing. “In addition to completing the training, to be an effective Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 21

Heda is currently mentoring a Satmar woman, who aspires to be a chaplain, and would welcome the opportunity to work with more Orthodox women.

chaplain you have to be someone who cares about the world, who wants to make a difference in the individual’s life and sees him or herself as part of the medical team,” says Asekoff.

Asekoff was the one who encouraged Heda to enter the program. “I detected in her the qualities one needs to be a chaplain.”

It was clearly the right call. Heda was hooked after one class, as chaplaincy includes the fields she is most interested in: spirituality, psychology, theology and ethics.

Rabbi Coleman feels that women are especially well suited for the role of a chaplain. He points to the Kel Malei Rachamim prayer, recited for the soul of the departed. Rachamim means compassion, and its root, rechem, means womb. This alludes to 22 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

the fact that mothers generally have a special ability to be nurturing and compassionate, says Rabbi Coleman. Similarly, Rabbi Coleman also notes that when making a mi sheberach, a public prayer or blessing recited in shul for an individual in need of healing or other form of Divine help, we use the mother’s name.

Rabbi Coleman believes that women are inherently gifted with qualities that are at the heart of professional chaplaincy.

Heda takes great pride in studies that show how chaplains improve patient outcomes and satisfaction. “Spiritual care is rightfully part of best practices in the healthcare setting where increasingly, there is a desire to treat the whole patient: body, mind and spirit.” g

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Rethinking

Orthodox Millennials: A Conversation with

RABBI ILAN HABER In this section, we define millennials as those born between 1982 and 2002. While we strive in the pages ahead to analyze the characteristics of millennials and how they impact Orthodox Jewish life, we are cognizant of the fact that the analyses are based on generalizations. The study of various generations is never an exact science and obviously, there will always be exceptions to the rule.

For the past twelve years, Rabbi Ilan Haber has served as the national director of the Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus (OU-JLIC), a program that places rabbinical couples on college campuses to serve as educators and mentors to students. Rabbi Haber began his career as an OU-JLIC educator, along with his wife, at Yale University. He has served as Hillel’s national director of accreditation, as a senior consultant in its Department of Campus Strategic Services and as a campus rabbi at The George Washington University.

Rabbi Haber holds a BA in English literature and semichah from Yeshiva University. He also has an MPA with a concentration in strategic management and evaluation from The George Washington University. He currently resides with his wife, Leah, and their five children in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel.

Jewish Action: Millennials are constantly maligned in the media. They are often accused of being lazy, narcissistic and entitled. Do you agree? What, in your view, are the unique characteristics of this population?

Rabbi Ilan Haber: I know it’s fashionable to deride millennials as being self-centered and unambitious. But the millennials I interact with do not conform to these stereotypes. As a whole, I find them to be more optimistic and more networked and interconnected both to each other and to their families than my generation [Generation X].

They are less cynical about the world and about their own limitations, and I get a sense that they really want to have an impact. They genuinely care about others; they tend to be very involved in social activism. Millennials are genuinely open to new experiences and ideas but are very discerning.

They are not gullible. You need to be cogent and compelling if you want their attention.

JA: Your work with OU-JLIC has made you somewhat of an expert on college youth. Can you tell us about some of the challenges facing Orthodox millennials on campus?

RH: From my vantage point, there are three primary challenges. Firstly, it is becoming increasingly common on campus to consider any limitation on personal freedom and personal choice as immoral.

26 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Not different. Immoral.

This is, of course, in direct contrast with Yahadut, which recognizes that we’re limited in all sorts of different ways. We’re limited emotionally, we’re limited by time, we’re limited by our own perspectives. Limitations are part and parcel of the human experience, and certainly part and parcel of the experience of being a religious Jew. If I’m born a Yisrael and not a Kohen, I can’t be involved in certain aspects of avodat Hashem. We’re supposed to embrace those limitations and find ways to engage with HaKadosh Baruch Hu and our religion despite those limitations.

These opposing attitudes—viewing limitations as immoral and viewing them as being inherent to the human experience—inevitably conflict. Many of the ideological struggles taking place in the broader society are a manifestation of this clash.

For the observant student, what happens when the

Torah says one thing and society another? What happens when we can’t embrace certain behaviors that society values because the Torah says that these behaviors are simply wrong? That clash is and continues to be especially challenging for religious students.

On the campus these days, there is an emphasis on tolerance—appreciation for and accommodation of difference in society. That in and of itself is a positive thing, and leads people to accept one another and be less judgmental. But I am concerned that this tolerance is just a veneer, that it only applies to those who fit into a certain narrative. That narrative is largely defined by multiculturalism and progressive liberalism. When one doesn’t fit into that narrative, suddenly people aren’t so tolerant anymore. Those who do not recognize certain progressive ideas as inviolable become targets.

JA: What are other ideas or ideologies prevalent among millennials that challenge the religious worldview?

RH: A second challenge is the accentuation of the individual, which relates back to the previous idea—the limits on personal freedom. There’s a tremendous emphasis in our society to think differently, to be different, to emerge as someone who’s unique. This creates anxiety because it sets up the expectation that one must have an individualized identity that is different from everyone else.

In previous generations, people were much more willing to identify with a particular group.

One of the most fascinating conversations I’ve had about dealing with collegiate students was with a college advisor for an African American affinity group at a particular campus. She told me that she has a very difficult time persuading students to identify with any one group or association, even when they agree with its particular values. The way she put it was quite striking: “If I created a group called non-racists and asked people to affiliate, it would be difficult to get them to wear a pin stating they were part of the non-racist group. They do not want to put themselves in a box.”

This is not a Jewish issue; this is a far broader phenomenon. The Pew Research Center conducted important studies about millennials, some of which point to a reticence to identify with institutions, both religious and political. Millennials, for example, may have values that would put them in line with the Democratic Party but they do not want to affiliate and prefer to call themselves Independents.

Whenever OU-JLIC sends out a survey and asks collegiates how they identify, this issue becomes apparent. Many respondents will say, “I’m just Jewish,” “I’m just religious” or “I’m halachic.”

They’ll come up with their own terms even if they adhere to halachah and fit within an Orthodox ideology; they’re not ready to identify themselves as Orthodox. They are more comfortable identifying as post-denominational, post-Orthodox or post-Modern Orthodox.

JA: How does this extreme emphasis on the individual affect religious life?

RH: That’s a good question. As a result of the accentuation of the individual, religion has become more of a consumer experience. With the assistance of technology, everything in our society can be adjusted or modified to individual needs or specifications. Most of our needs are customized in this technological era and very few things are “one size fits all.” People begin to expect the same customized approach from their religion.

To illustrate: when an individual feels that the most important aspect in life is his ability to pursue his own personal freedoms, religion can easily become something to feed into his own self-fulfillment.

This mentality can cause one to believe that Judaism too has to be about accentuating or maximizing one’s own need for self-fulfillment rather than about serving God. On the Internet, for example, when we come across something that makes us uncomfortable or doesn’t connect to something we value or enjoy, we discard it. What happens when this perspective begins to permeate our religious identity and experience? This also, by the way, encourages educators and mechanchim to package religion as if it were a consumer product.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 27

JA: You mentioned three challenges. What is the third?

JA: Can you give an example of how an educator might do that?

RH: “Consumer Judaism” centers around the needs and wants of the “consumer.” For example, instead of a teacher providing his or her students with challenges that make them grapple or work towards understanding a concept in the Torah, he provides sound bites and easily digestible ideas that reaffirm rather than challenge these students’ notions about the world and about themselves.

“Consumer Judaism” leads to “I don’t go to shul because I want to be part of a community; I go to shul because I want a certain kind of experience.”

In other words, the individuation of religious identity further breaks down the notions of community, community service and community connection.

Millennials especially are very engaged in social justice, social action, tzedakah and all sorts of altruistic endeavors, all of which are very positive.

However, I’m afraid that for many of them, these endeavors could become avenues toward their own self-fulfillment. For some millennials, the motivation for engaging in good deeds is “I’m a good person and I want to express that goodness in some way.” Once again, it becomes about the individual rather than about religious duty or obligation.

I once gave a shiur about the importance of davening with the tzibbur. This idea bothered one of the young participants who came up to me afterward and posed the following: “Let’s say I face a sunset while davening and that enables me to achieve my greatest deveikut with HaKadosh Baruch Hu; why isn’t that a better experience than going to shul where I don’t feel the spirituality as deeply or not even at all?”

That question encapsulates the challenge—the idea that ultimately davening should be about me maximizing my own avodat Hashem. What this young man is saying is essentially this—the way I feel when I connect to HaKadosh Baruch Hu is more important than being part of and contributing towards a communal endeavor. This is rooted in the individuation of religion.

28 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

RH: The third challenge is the breakdown of the boundaries between the private and public realms. For many millennials, in order for an experience to have value, it needs to be shared with others. It needs to be posted on social media and people have to like it and comment on it.

Firstly, there is the issue of mindfulness. Instead of “being in the moment” and feeling an experience, people believe that they need a photo or a recording of an event or else it is not meaningful.

Secondly, and even more importantly, what happened to the value of tzeniut, of not sharing all our internal things, of having a private realm in which to function? When Bilaam gave a berachah to the Jewish people, he said, “Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishkanotecha Yisrael, How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel.” Chazal ask, “What was he praising? What was praiseworthy about the tents of Bnei Yisrael?” The answer is that the windows weren’t facing each other, so they couldn’t see into each other’s homes. There was a distinction between our public persona and our private persona.

There’s “tov”—a positive value—in being private that is even codified in halachah. Note, for example, the laws regarding hezek re’iyah—building fences between neighbors and not having windows facing each other. This concept needs to be applied on a personal level. Recently, I heard about a young man who had posted a yichud room selfie online.

The idea that one would post a photo of himself in the yichud room, the most private of private places that represents the intimacy between husband and wife, highlights some of the challenges we face.

JA: How should Orthodox students on campus respond to these ideologies or ways of thinking that are not consistent with the Torah way of life?

RH: When I speak to college students, I often point out that it’s okay to be countercultural. If one says, “I’m sorry that my view doesn’t completely conform to societal values, but this is who I am”—that would be valued. If you state your

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 29

position with authenticity, confidence and pride, and do not second-guess yourself, your position will likely be respected. Sincerity is very well respected among millennials.

Some Jewish organizations trying to reach millennials are constantly chasing after the cool, trying to be the most “with it.” Firstly, they will always be second in that race. It might be cool to be the first person there, but it’s never cool to be the second or third person. Secondly, trying to be the coolest is unnecessary. Millennials respond to self-confidence and authenticity. Even if one’s message is countercultural, stating it strongly and plainly can encourage people to think for themselves and to resist some of these larger societal messages that impede their own religious development.

I also remind students that community is about unity, not uniformity. Being part of something doesn’t mean we’re putting you in a box or saying that you have to be exactly like everybody else.

In fact, we embrace each person’s uniqueness; we embrace the individuality that everyone brings and that individuality actually enhances the need for community. Simultaneously, there’s a responsibility to community, a responsibility to be part of something greater, to be part of some sort of unified whole.

JA: What you’re saying is that young people should have a sense of pride in being Jewish and in being countercultural. But historically, hasn’t being Jewish often meant being countercultural?

RH: That’s true. Jews have always had to say, “I have my own set of ideals that I don’t necessarily change because of everything going on around me.” Orthodox Jews in America have way more pride today than we had decades ago. We can’t lose sight of our own pride. We can’t let ourselves feel uncomfortable because, for example, we don’t believe that Israel is an apartheid state and the majority of young people on campus do.

We can’t lose sight of our own values and ideals in light of what society thinks of us. However, we have to be able to speak a language that can at least engage others in conversation. If we, for ex-

ample, use concepts considered offensive, no one’s going to listen.

Yahadut is about service to HaKadosh Baruch Hu; it’s a life of service, a life of privilege and a life of responsibility—it’s not a life of rights. It’s not about our own self-fulfillment, it’s not about our own personal freedoms; it’s about how we engage in the world to make it a better place through the responsibilities, not the rights, we have as individuals. And that’s an important message.

JA: Do you have any parting words for our readers?

RH: As we enter into the Yamim Nora’im, I believe it is worthwhile to put this in a broader perspective. No matter how one’s generation or society in general can influence a person, no single individual needs to be defined by it. There are countless examples throughout Jewish history of individuals making a unique and important mark on themselves and others. Among the most important traits that I have found in millennials is a fundamental belief and interest in making a unique contribution. There is an entrepreneurial spirit and optimism at play here, combined with an openness to engage with others. When this is combined with a healthy commitment to cheshbon hanefesh—acknowledging one’s influences and limitations—it could lead to greatness.

Sometimes we have to disengage a little bit to reflect on life’s larger questions: What do I really want out of life? What is motivating me? What does Torah mean to me? What are my responsibilities as an eved Hashem? And how can I contribute to my community? It’s important to understand how our motives and perspectives are influenced by everything that’s going on in the world around us, and then incorporate that understanding to better ourselves.

Listen to Rabbi Haber discuss challenges facing Orthodox millennials at www.ou.org/life/community/savitsky_haber/.

30 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

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By Avidan Milevsky

I

recently sat in my shul office with a young person who commented about how displeased he was with some aspect of our shul. After presenting his case he proclaimed, without much forethought, “Maybe I should just start my own shul.�

When I asked him about this odd comment, he described how he previously worked for a high-tech company and was unhappy with the way the company was being run. So he decided to open his own startup company and found much success in this new endeavor. He figured that if it worked for him in his professional life maybe he should do the same with regard to his spiritual life.

This is just one example of the many interactions I have had with millennials through my synagogue work, which has given me insight into this fascinating cohort.

In addition to providing an exciting, vibrant and energetic atmosphere, my shul is also known for being home to a sizable number of millennials. Beyond my experiences in shul, I teach millennials in my university work, have conducted research on the social and emotional dynamics of this cohort, and work clinically with adolescents and young adults. Hence, in this essay, I draw upon my rabbinical and psychological experiences in addition to the growing body of research on this extraordinary cohort. Beyond offering a more detailed description of the characteristics of millennials, I will also offer some insight about how these characteristics may have developed and will end with how our current knowledge about millennials can inform synagogue practice.

One caveat: it is important to note that the description and analysis of the millennial generation is based on an established research and statistical norm. As with any demographic description, many exceptions should be anticipated and each young adult ought to be approached as an individual with an unrepeatable uniqueness.

Who are Millennials?

Millennials are defined as the cohort of individuals born between 1982 and 2002. With an estimated ninety million members, the millennial generation is the largest cohort in

American society. Considering their numbers and unique characteristics, they have been the focus of significant sociological and psychological research over the past several years.

The aggregate research on this cohort highlights several interesting traits that millennials possess including being sheltered, needy, over-confident, pressured, busy, narcissistic, disloyal, casual and materialistic. They also have limited coping skills, a sense of entitlement, an excessive attachment to parents and a heightened focus on interpersonal relationships. In large-scale surveys comparing individuals from different cohorts, millennials have been found to score higher on a desire for materialism, money and fame and lower on measures of empathy in comparison to those from other cohorts.

On the other hand, millennials have also been shown to be idealistic and politically and civically minded and to possess a unique sense of volunteerism. Some studies also suggest that millennials may have elevated levels of mental health issues including depression, anxiety and eating and sleep disorders.

What Contributed to the Millennial Characteristics?

The millennial characteristics are a function of interconnecting societal, familial and developmental variables.

Many millennials were in elementary and high school when society began placing greater emphasis on academic outcomes. This caused many millennials to focus exclusively on grades and evaluation. The fixation on achievement and outcomes may also create a combination of overwhelming ambition with diminished possibilities for success and a disconnect between expectations and reality. All of this may contribute to elevated mental health problems, a lack of coping skills and diminished life skills.

This is also the generation that grew up with a heightened focus on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and the

Rabbi Dr. Avidan Milevsky is interim rabbi of Kesher Israel-the Georgetown Synagogue in Washington, DC. He is also an associate professor of psychology at Ariel University in Israel and a psychotherapist in Ramat Beit Shemesh and Baltimore. His research on families and the intersection of spirituality and well-being has produced over 100 papers, twenty peer-reviewed papers and six books.

32 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

overemphasis, particularly in the US, on medicinal interventions. The US consumes more Ritalin than the rest of the world combined. This could possibly be responsible for the millennial propensity toward quick fixes.

Millennials are also products of the self-esteem generation.

Their parents’ hyper-focus on self-esteem building included practices such as giving their children undeserved accolades and awarding all players on a little league team with participation trophies irrespective of actual achievement.

Beyond the inflated sense of self that the self-esteem movement may have created, it likely impacted attitudes toward hard work and entitlement.

Another societal variable that may have impacted millennials’ attitudes and behavior involves economics. When entering the workforce, many millennials faced serious economic difficulties. In fact, among this cohort, labor force participation and home ownership are the lowest in recent history. Thus, it should come as no surprise that many millennials move back into their parents’ homes in what has become known as the boomerang generation. In some cases the lack of job opportunities may be based on preference. Millennials value flexibility, autonomy and control in their day-to-day lives, and hence are less likely to be loyal to a place of work and are more likely to start their own businesses if they don’t like their workplace. A third of all entrepreneurs are millennials and more than a quarter of millennials have started their own business. This lack of workplace loyalty many also translate into being disengaged from traditional institutions such as marriage, religion and establishment politics.

The technological revolution has also had a powerful effect on this generation. For example, heavy usage of social media

has been linked with online bullying, making unrealistic comparisons to others and diminished face-to-face interactions. These factors may put millennials at a particular risk for self-image issues and mental health disturbances.

“Helicopter parenting” has also had an influence. (The term refers to parents who consistently hover over their children and are ready at a moment’s notice to swoop in and tend to the difficulties of their children.) This is evident in the way parents engage the academic and social lives of their college-age students, and even beyond that, when parents intervene on their children’s behalf at workplaces by reaching out to co-workers or even bosses on behalf of their children.

I recently heard of a case of a millennial couple in their thirties who were in the process of purchasing their first home. The parents on both sides were intimately involved with every aspect of the transaction, creating chaos and hurt feelings, which ultimately resulted in the deal falling through.

Millennials value flexibility, autonomy and control in their day-to-day lives, and hence are less likely to be loyal to a place of work and are more likely to start their own businesses if they don’t like their workplace.

Similarly, I recently had to give a failing grade to one of my university students. Shortly after, I received a phone call from the student’s father demanding to know why his daughter received such a low grade. I thankfully was able to respond that I would be delighted to speak with him but federal law prohibits me from discussing his child’s academic achievements with him. Ten minutes later he called again.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 33

This time he had his daughter conferenced on the call. The father began, “Sweetie, please tell the professor that you allow me to talk to him about your grade,” to which the daughter sheepishly replied, “Yes, I let you talk to my Daddy. . . ” In fact, in response to the helicopter parenting phenomenon, the large majority of US colleges and universities have a “parent coordinator” on staff. What are some of the unfortunate consequences of this over-parenting? Difficulties in problem solving, dependency issues, low self-efficacy and limited coping skills.

Finally, the intersection of these numerous societal and familial variables has produced a fascinating developmental element to the millennial generation: the entry into adulthood has become a longer and slower transformation than in the past. Termed by the great developmental psychologist Dr. Jeffery Arnett as “emerging adulthood,” millennials have been shown to be ambivalent about their adult status and many of them report feeling like both an adolescent and an adult at the same time. This uncertainty has created an identity crisis of some sort for this generation.

Millennials and Religious Life The common characteristics of millennials offer both opportunities and challenges for religious life in general, and for congregational and communal life in particular.

Jewish leadership often notes how difficult it is to attract millennials to participate in brick-and-mortar causes. As a function of the features highlighted above, millennial involvement in traditional programing is weak.

However, the difficulties in attracting millennials to traditional religious causes and practices, noted by both 34 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

the literature and practitioners, by no means indicates that they are uninterested in God or spirituality. A growing body of research in the scientific study of religion has consistently found that one’s perception of God often correlates with the way one viewed and currently views one’s relationship with one’s parents. Hence, the image millennials have of their protective parents often translates into perceiving God as being overprotective, a kind of “helicopter God.” This model of God may fit into more of a spiritualitybased practice rather than a religiosity-based practice.

Millennials may be attracted to the more spiritual elements of Judaism that highlight God’s protective role and the intimate relationship that we have with Him rather than the more legalistic elements of Judaism. The significant success of college campus programs that infuse a Chassidic flavor into their events attests to this.

The magnified self-importance common among millennials can also be productively channeled.

Although the propensity for self-aggrandizement may lead millennials to question authority and religious doctrines, it could also lead to opportunities for religious growth. For example, instead of making a congregant feel badly when he or she engages in improper behavior, a rabbi should draw upon the young person’s positive self-image to promote true Torah growth; he should focus on how exceptional he or she is and how unbecoming such behavior is for a person on his level. Millennials may be particularly receptive to this approach, which has its roots in some of the

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glorious traditions of Eastern European yeshivot, perhaps less Kelm and more Slabodka.

Furthermore, shul and community leaders should consider the function of their institutions more broadly.

Beyond offering a place to pray and learn, shuls should expand their vision in order to attract millennials. What other types of events and services can the shul undertake that may appeal to the uniqueness of millennials? Our shul has a wildly successful “cholent competition” that is

exclusively orchestrated and implemented by some exceptional and energetic millennials. Thinking about programing more broadly can also appeal to the political and civic mindedness of this cohort. Creative social programing or networking opportunities can feed the millennial entrepreneurial spirit.

Perhaps the traditional opposition to breakaway minyanim or extra-shul programming initiated by younger people needs to be recalibrated. Instead of fighting this trend, perhaps acknowledging the desire for some independence and creativity may allow for the balancing of shul unity together with openness toward millennial-driven imagination. Instead of fighting the young people’s Kiddush Club, maybe the rabbi can join them for a quick L’chaim!

Millennials’ idealistic tendencies and sense of volunteerism can be directed towards communal work.

They should be encouraged to seek positions on the shul board or spearhead shul or community projects that would be beneficial for them and the organizations. Those who are tech-savvy should be enlisted to use social media to assist the shul or organization with regard to publicity.

Finally, due to the higher prevalence of mental health issues in this cohort, rabbis should have some level of mental health competencies either via an actual degree in the helping professions or via extensive training. Shuls should consider having referral pathways including establishing crisis services and screening and evaluations when necessary. Rabbis may also want to incorporate mental health based concepts, such as resilience and wellbeing, in classes and sermons. Although this mental health focus can be beneficial for all congregants, efforts in this arena may be more successful among this cohort considering the diminished stigma and greater openness in talking about these issues found among millennials.

By broadening the focus with some creativity and flexibility and showcasing how a shul can serve religious, spiritual, emotional, psychological and social needs, congregations may be better positioned for attracting the multidimensional millennials.

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A Project of

The Millennial

COMMUNITY

By Efrem Goldberg

A

few years ago, I gave an admittedly harsh sermon critical of young people for their lack of participation in communitywide events such as Yom HaShoah commemorations and Yom Ha’atzmaut or Yom Yerushalayim celebrations. I called on them to show up more and be counted and suggested that perhaps at the core of their absence was a self-centered mentality, often coupled with a great sense of entitlement and self-importance, that left young people interested in little else besides posting their latest selfie on Facebook or tracking how many “likes” or followers they had.

Right after davening, a young person who took particular offense to my sermon asked to speak with me. While agreeing that he and his peers for the most part don’t participate in community events and programs, he said my diagnosis was entirely wrong. Millennials care equally about the issues and observances, he submitted; they simply express their concern online rather than in person. They may not attend a physical Yom HaShoah event, but they participate in the observance of Yom HaShoah by posting or reacting to articles and videos online.

They may not show up to a Yom Ha’atzmaut program, but they proudly celebrate through social media and with their online community.

Listening with an open mind, I was struck by what he said.

Perhaps I was wrong to ascribe negative motives for young people’s absence. Maybe while they were absent in one place, they were, in fact, present in another.

Participating in an online network and community has many positive and important consequences. By definition, an online community is much larger than any local community could ever be. The reach, influence and interconnectivity are extraordinary and have virtually no limits or geographic barriers. Moreover, in the online community everyone has a voice, no matter the age, socio-economic status and educational background—something

Rabbi Efrem Goldberg is the senior rabbi at Boca Raton Synagogue in Florida.

38 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

largely unattainable in the local community. There are individuals who are introverts by nature. Membership in a community online gives them an outlet to express their views and ideas in ways that are comfortable for them.

The young man was right. I have personally seen the opportunities and blessings online communities can bring. Particularly when it comes to millennials, we must consider the online community, how we can reach those using it and how we can use online means to achieve offline goals.

But the young man was also terribly wrong. While the online community is real and significant, it cannot and must not ever replace the actual physical community. Not for millennials or for anyone else.

Commitment to community is a core value of Judaism and of Torah. As early as Creation itself, God observed, “It is not good for man to be alone” (Bereishit 2:18). Man alone is a taker; he is self-centered and self-absorbed. Only in the context of community, in connection with others, does man extend beyond himself and become a giver. Perhaps this is what Hillel had in mind when he said, “Do not separate [yourself ] from the community” (Pirkei Avot 2:5). Rambam goes even further by declaring, “Anyone who separates from the community has no portion in the World to Come” (Hilchot Teshuvah 3:6).

DIGITAL

DATING

By Dovid Cohen

No doubt, technology has helped to greatly expand the average Modern Orthodox millennial’s pool of dating prospects. It is not uncommon for a Modern Orthodox single to enjoy a Shabbat meal with someone and immediately after Shabbat locate her or him on social media. With an intermediary no longer necessary to provide the contact information, Orthodox millennial daters enjoy greater independence and privacy.

Yet some would argue that technology and dating is not necessarily a good shidduch. While texting a potential date is less threatening and easier than making a phone call, the tendency to over-rely on texting is not conducive to developing a new relationship. Indeed, the days of hand-written effusive letters, like the kind that my grandfather wrote to my grandmother when they were dating in the 1930s, are long over.

In the age of social media, it is also important to remember that one’s persona—and certainly one’s social media persona—may not necessarily reflect who one truly is. I recently saw a quote on Facebook that read, “My blessing to you is [that] your life should be as great as it appears on Facebook.” Millennials must overcome the tendency to make snap judgments based on someone’s Facebook page or JSwipe account, and reclaim the slow, deliberate and yes, oldfashioned approach to building the most important relationship of their lives.

Rabbi Dovid M. Cohen is an OU regional director of synagogues and director of community engagement for Yachad/the National Jewish Council for Disabilities. His new book, We’re Almost There: Living with Patience, Perseverance and Purpose (Los Angeles, CA 2016), has a section devoted to relationships and can be purchased at www.rabbidovidmcohen.com.

The Internet and social media enable people to be more connected than ever before; however, we must never confuse connection with community. In fact, a plethora of research shows that despite the proliferation of online social networking, people are increasingly lonely and distant from one another offline. In her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle shows how people who are heavily connected online are more isolated than ever offline, leading to emotional disconnection, mental fatigue and anxiety.

Shlomo HaMelech described the uniqueness of face-to-face interactions when he said, “Kamayim ha’panim la’panim, ken lev ha’adam la’adam, As water reflects a face back to face, so does the heart of man to man” (Mishlei 27:19). He also taught us that “B’rov am hadrat melech, In the multitude of people is the king’s glory,” (Mishlei 14:28), a principle with halachic implications. The Gemara (Rosh Hashanah 32b) considers that though we generally perform a mitzvah as early in the day as possible, we don’t blow shofar on Rosh Hashanah during Shacharit and instead wait for Mussaf; this is because “B’rov am hadrat melech,” more people will be present and the community will be larger, lending greater honor to the mitzvah and glory to Hashem.

The importance of community is axiomatic to Jewish life. For a mourner to say Kaddish and be comforted, there must be people who are present and can respond. In order to fulfill the obligation to hear the shofar blown or the megillah read, one must be there to hear it live and in person. For a couple to be blessed with the recitation of sheva berachot at the meals that occur during the week following their wedding, there must be panim chadashot, new faces, guests who physically come to share in their joy.

When a friend is struggling, you can’t e-mail a meal, nor can you cover for a carpool partner via a text or FaceTime a plate of cookies. When a tragedy strikes, typing “no words” on your Facebook feed doesn’t begin to compare with silently sitting next to a mourner in a shivah home. Of course, if barriers like geography make showing up difficult, one should do what he can over the phone or online. But at its core, community means being there and showing up offline, in person.

Milestones and special moments, both happy and sad, cannot be adequately observed in an online community, even with the incredible help of Skype or FaceTime. Holocaust survivors don’t draw strength from those observing Yom HaShoah online. Imagine a wedding where the bride and groom stand all alone under the chuppah with all their friends and family Skyping in or liking the Livestream. That is what happens when millennials—or anyone for that matter—pass on showing up in person and justify it by participating online. When Woody Allen famously said, “Eighty percent of life is showing up,” he wasn’t talking about showing up online.

Our challenge as modern Torah Jews is to welcome the new while holding on to the old. In the modern world, we need dual citizenship in both the community online as well as in our local communities offline. By participating in social media and contributing to the conversation online, communities and their leaders will reach more people and have greater influence promoting Torah values and beliefs.

At the same time, millennials for whom digital citizenship is natural, and others who have immigrated there, must remain staunchly committed to participating in and contributing to the local community’s observances, events and rituals.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 39

FILLING THE

EMPTY SELF A Challenge for Millennials

By Aharon Hersh Fried

O

ne of the questions that puzzles students of the human condition is how the growth of affluence in America over the last seventy years or so failed to be accompanied by a rise in overall happiness.

To the contrary, the increase in wealth has been accompanied by a steady and significant rise in depression, suicide and the illicit use of drugs.

Psychologist Philip Cushman1 suggests that this may be due to a change in the way people have come to view and identify themselves. There was a time when the formation of an individual’s identity was helped along and informed (some would say constrained) by one’s community. A young person would identify himself as a son, a brother, a grandson, a husband, a father, perhaps a disciple of a teacher or discipline, an adherent of a religion, a patriot of one’s country or a person sharing values with others in one’s social and cultural group. The identity formed by this process played a crucial role in defining a person’s life goals—what kind of a person he saw himself becoming—and dictated his behavior.

Identity gave meaning to life.

However, this has changed.

Cushman suggests that, beginning with the Industrial Revolution and coming full force with the emergence of the post-World War II economy, the path to identity formation and the very definition of the self has changed. Guided by forces such as industrialization, urbanization, individualism and secularism, an autonomous, bounded and masterful self has emerged. This is very much an individualistic self; a self that is driven more by work, career and personal advancement than by family or community; a self that is driven more by financial success and the accumulation of resources than by tradition or values. This self has specific psychological boundaries, an internal locus of control and a wish to manipulate the external world for its own personal ends to thereby attain satisfaction and happiness. In

Cushman’s words, the post-WWII economy is “dependent on the continual consumption of nonessential and quickly obsolete items . . . requires individuals who experience a strong ‘need’ for consumer products and in fact demand them.” With the help of the advertising industry, which suggests that buying products will lift people to some imagined desirable “state of being” (i.e., happiness of some sort), Cushman explains, Americans slowly changed from a Victorian people with a deeply felt need to save money and restrict their sexual and aggressive impulses to a people with a deeply felt need to spend money and indulge their impulses.

Because material consumption cannot provide deep, sustaining life meaning and happiness, people came to experience an inner emptiness, an empty self, which led to drug abuse, eating disorders, compulsive buying, suicide and depression.

The Affluence Paradox—the finding that suicide, depression and other societal maladies have increased rather than decreased as our society has become more affluent—is no paradox at all. Cushman also points out that many mental health professionals often fail to help, as they tend to just help people live with the accepted, if flawed, perception of self rather than attack the underlying issues of the empty self.

Cushman is far from alone in his observations. The title of David Myers book, The American Paradox: Spiritual Hunger in an Age of Plenty,2 captures the flavor of the issue, and Jonathan Haidt’s observation that many in our country are concerned with only three out of the six identified foundational principles for making moral choices3 suggests that the richness of our world of values has been diminished. And a

Rabbi Dr. Aharon H. Fried is associate professor of psychology at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women.

40 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

recently translated book by Pierre Manent titled Beyond Radical Secularism suggests that the reason Muslim immigrants from France remain unassimilated into French society is because there is nothing to assimilate into. “[The] dominant opinion in Europe tends to consider Europe as a ‘nothing,’ a space empty of anything common”—that is, of no common habits or morals. The “unlimited sovereignty of the individual,” according to Manent, “will not allow the individual to be defined by anything external to him, and thus remains empty.” Similarly, as Polish philosopher Andrzej Szczypiorski wrote in 1995,4 “The world needs a conscience more than a new generation of computers . . . . No computer monitor can display either a One can’t help but note that the pervasiveness of the empty self as described by Cushman may be even greater in this century than in the last, what with the on-line hyper-marketing of consumer goods, the constant emergence of new technological gadgets, diminishing faceto-face social contact in favor of social media and the reported increase in narcissism, which has been said to be related to the empty self. person’s principles or his moral choices.”

It seems almost too obvious to state the Torah’s position on this, but I think it worthwhile to cite the sefer Nachlat Yosef,5 written in 1959, on the words of the Prophet Amos (8:11-12): “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, Hashem, and I will send famine into the land, not a famine for bread nor a thirst for water, but to hear the word of Hashem. And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the north to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Hashem, but they shall not find it.”

The Prophet is speaking of days of spiritual dimness, for example, as in our own time, when all the slogans offering high hopes have been shown to be empty, and all the beautiful “theories” were found to be false, and the soul is empty and dry and is ready to bend to all winds of the world, but it will find nothing to sate its hunger and thirst, for the thing that it (truly and unknowingly) seeks is the word of Hashem, but it will not find its way to it. This is what happened to this generation. It began with the urgency of material acquisitions, a sluggish approach to engaging in chesed, a spiritual slumber and a deceitful soul, until it led to a generation that had become empty inside and felt hungry.

No! Technological advancement and the culture of “he who dies with the most toys wins” cannot and will not fill us, heal us or make us happy. I believe the wonderful challenge for the next generation is to improve on the definition of self they have been bequeathed by the earlier generations—to fill the empty self.

One can’t help but note that the pervasiveness of the empty self as described by Cushman may be even greater in this century than in the last, what with the on-line hyper-marketing of consumer goods, the constant emergence of new technological gadgets, diminishing face-to-face social contact in favor of social media and the reported increase in narcissism, which has been said to be related to the empty self.6 On the other hand, there are signs of a quiet revolution emerging. There are indications that this generation is not willing to accept the emptiness of the past. A review of the literature shows that millennials are approaching jobs and careers differently. Recent studies7 on generational differences in work

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attitudes and ethical judgments in the workplace report that millennials see work as less central to their lives, and value leisure time more. They seek more of a work-life balance and are more family-centric than the Baby Boomer generation. They are more discerning in their consumption and in their buy-in to advertising; they believe their peers more than an advert8 and look at socially responsible factors more than at pricing.

They are also reported to be better at detecting ethical misconduct than members of other generations. More than half will refuse to work for a company that they have learned is socially or environmentally irresponsible.9 They question establishment politics, are more socially involved and active on campus, and they are said to be . . . seeking authenticity! Yes, they remain very individualistic, have great self-esteem and a smaller need for social approval, but I would like to believe that this is an individualism not in the service of self, but in adherence to deeply held values. There is no mention in the literature of what millennials want to do with their leisure time and what they mean by a work-life balance. I would hope that they seek more time for more meaningful contemplation, activities and involvements that will fill the empty self.

The last prophecy the Jewish people received in Malachi (3:24) is, “And he will turn back to God the hearts of the fathers with their sons.” On this verse, Rashi comments: “through their sons.”

It is the children who will return true Torah values to their parents.

May we see it in this generation as they rise to the challenge.

Notes 1. Philip Cushman, “Why the Self is Empty: Toward a Historically Situated Psychology,” American Psychologist 45, no. 5 (1990): 599-611.

2. New Haven, Connecticut, 2000.

3. Lea Winerman, “Civil Discourse in an Uncivil World,” Monitor on Psychology 7, no. 5 (2016): 62-63.

4. Andrzej Szczypiorski, “Humanism for the Future,” Swissair Gazette (July 1995): 36-38.

5. Rabbi Yosef Zev Lipovitz, Nachlat Yosef (1959). Excerpt translated by Rabbi Dr. Aharon Hersh Fried.

6. Frank Gruba-McCallister, “Narcissism and the Empty Self: To Have or To Be,” Journal of Individual Psychology 63, no. 2 (2007): 182-192.

7. Jean M. Twenge, “A Review of the Empirical Evidence on Generational Differences in Work Attitudes,” Journal of Business and Psychology 25, no.

2 (2010): 201-210; Barbara Culiberg and Katarina Katja Miheli, “Three Ethical Frames of Reference: Insights into Millennials’ Ethical Judgements and Intentions in the Workplace,” Business Ethics: A European Review 25, no. 1 (2016): 94-109.

8. Katharine Taken Smith, “Digital Marketing Strategies that Millennials Find Appealing, Motivating, or Just Annoying,” Journal of Strategic Marketing 19, no. 6 (2011): 489-49.

9. “The 2006 Cone Millennial Cause Study The Millennial Generation: Pro-Social and Empowered to Change the World,” Cone Inc., 2006. Also cited by Culiberg and Miheli. PDF available at www.centerforgiving.org/Portals/0/2006%20Cone%20Millennial%20Cause%20Study.pdf.

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In their

OWN WORDS Millennials Speak About...

PRAYER

W

hen I started college last fall, I quickly realized that occasional meals and get-togethers at Hillel were not enough to keep alive the Jewish spark I had nurtured while learning in seminary in Israel. I needed more. I needed not only to include Judaism in my college life, I needed to arrange my college life around my Judaism.

By going to minyan every morning, rather than davening alone in my room, I was able to begin to fill this void. Going to minyan gives me the opportunity to connect with others and to connect with Hashem simultaneously. Going to minyan helps me realize that I am not alone, that I am not the only one struggling to find my place in a new environment.

More than once last year, I looked around at my non-Jewish friends who were able to participate in exciting events on Saturdays and could eat all the food in the cafeteria, not just from the small kosher section in the back. At times, I admit, I felt a little jealous. But then I would take a step back and reflect. I have more to live for than just myself. I am a link in a chain thousands of years older than me. There’s nothing I want more than to be able to be a part of that chain.

Going to minyan every day helps remind me that I am part of that chain, and part of a community that will continue to carry our rich spiritual legacy into the future.

Abby Berk, twenty

Johns Hopkins University

LEADERSHIP “When I was a teenager, our rebbeim and youth leaders convinced us that the future of Yiddishkeit depended upon us, our learning, our teaching, our modeling and our outreach.” Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, emeritus Growing up, I would often hear my parents and others in the community discuss the problems facing Orthodoxy. One problem in particular was discussed: the lack of leadership. The spiritual leaders who had rebuilt the Jewish community in America in the aftermath of the Holocaust were either deceased or no longer had the ability to carry the heavy mantle of leadership. The next generation, my parents asserted, was unsuited to carry the mantle that had been set before them.

How could that be? I wondered. There are far more day schools today than have ever existed in the past, as well as 44 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

more youth organizations and more young men receiving semichah. How it is possible that despite intense anti-Semitism and economic depression that existed for millennia, we as a people managed to produce tremendous spiritual leaders; but today when we have political, social and economic freedom, we are no longer able to do so?

The failing, as I see it, lies not in the quality of the leaders but in the quality of their message. The message touted by modern Jewish leaders does not give young people a true purpose. In Jewish camps and at Jewish youth events and Shabbatons, the message conveyed is that we are there to meet Jews of the opposite sex and ensure that the intermarriage rate falls. In essence, Jewish leadership is telling us that the purpose of modern Judaism is merely to survive.

But that really is no purpose at all; every species is programmed to continue the survival of its species.

It is true that the various Jewish youth organizations I participated in also touted Jewish ethics, ideals and social action, but those were always secondary to their overriding goal—preventing intermarriage. Today there is much discussion about the dearth of Jewish leadership, but perhaps we should be discussing the dearth of Jewish purpose first.

Chaim Chernoff, twenty

Johns Hopkins University

It is disturbing to see so many fellow Jews espouse negative views toward Jewish leaders—views that run counter to our faith and to our tradition. Maybe it’s due to the structure of our institutions, which places rabbis and leaders at the center of organizational politics. Maybe it’s due to the few bad apples that have cast aspersions on the good ones. Maybe it’s due to our arrogance, which makes it more difficult to forget that one time the rabbi offended us. Or perhaps it’s due to the fact that we were taught that our leaders have a kind of “papal infallibility,” causing us to feel deeply disillusioned when they make even minor mistakes.

Yet is there a crisis of Jewish leadership? Most certainly not. Our rabbis continue to work tirelessly on behalf of our communities, and it is unfortunate that they are not getting the respect that they deserve. I pray that God will help me educate my children to respect their rabbis and teachers the same way I was taught to respect mine.

Shimon Indig, twenty-seven

CPA • Bergenfield, New Jersey

For me, leadership in the Orthodox community elicits mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I love taking on community-oriented responsibilities. I have served as the co-president of the Orthodox group at Harvard for the past two years, and in this role, I’ve been involved in some of the most rewarding work I’ve ever done. It has been a privilege to organize weekly student-taught shiurim and learn Torah from my friends, provide kosher programming for frum students during Shabbat and the rest of the week, and help my peers navigate halachic observance and find spiritual meaning while living on a secular college campus. Doing this sort of work is my life’s calling, and I would not trade the experiences of these past four semesters for anything.

Having said that, leading as a woman in the Orthodox community can also be exhausting. I recall the time when some Orthodox undergrads expressed frustration about a university policy, so I called a meeting to discuss the issue.

Around six or seven guys came to the meeting, making me the only woman at the table. I had another meeting to attend right afterward, so I was eager to get through the discussion material as quickly as possible, but everyone refused to quiet down and pay attention to what I had to say. After I decided to cut my losses and only focus on the attendees seated closest to me, I managed to hold some semblance of a meeting. When I got up to leave, I left my male co-president to facilitate the rest of the meeting. While putting away my laptop and buttoning up my coat, I noticed that he didn’t seem to have a problem getting the guys to listen.

This is just one example of many that I’ve experienced as a woman trying to lead men in the Orthodox community.

There are obviously many exceptions to the rule, but it is clear to me that young Orthodox men—even ones who identify as liberal and have progressive ideologies with regard to women’s religious roles—need to learn how to deal with a woman at the helm.

Talia Weisberg, twenty-one Harvard University

SPIRITUALITY In recent years, it has become popular among young people to search for a more spiritually intense approach to Judaism.

Some have turned to the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov and other Chassidic rabbis. They look for the hidden meanings of the letters of the Aleph Bet, discuss the sefirot and the upper echelons of the Heavens while playing Shlomo Carlebach or Zusha’s tunes in candlelit rooms. But from a Torah perspective, enjoying a spiritual experience that is not rooted in halachah is worthless.

To illustrate: There is a fairly popular Jewish camping trip that many young people are attracted to. A friend of mine told me what an “amazingly spiritual” experience it was. During Shabbat day, everyone sang zemirot while musical instruments were played in the background. As they listened to the music, they discussed Likutei Maharan Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 45

Why Aliyah Speaks to Millennials

By Sarah Kantor Millennials, defined by Nefesh B’Nefesh as the cohort born between 1983 and 2000, make up a significant percentage of Anglo olim—66 percent in 2014 and 68 percent in 2015. The vast majority of Nefesh B’Nefesh’s 2015 millennial olim were single, but few were alone.

Whether they joined the IDF, studied in Ulpan, took advantage of the free higher education opportunities provided by the Israeli government or found jobs upon arrival, most young olim come to Israel with a network of family and friends who have already made Israel their home.

Amongst Modern Orthodox millennials, aliyah is becoming increasingly common. Many have years of Religious Zionist education under their belts as well as significant Israel education and exposure; additionally, they face an economic climate that makes their generation unlikely to surpass the success of their parents.

Among millennials, aliyah makes sense when one considers the characteristics most associated with this population: innovative, optimistic and engaged.

Millennials are known for their entrepreneurial spirit, and as Israel’s economy is fueled by innovation—it is the start-up nation after all—opportunities abound for a population willing to take a calculated risk. For Modern Orthodox millennials, living in Israel makes sense spiritually, ideologically and financially.

But for all the benefits of living in Israel (and there are many), Orthodox millennials also face unique challenges. Rewriting a CV for the Israeli market, finding retraining opportunities, or trying to leverage English-language skills in a Hebrew work environment can be daunting. For a generation known for being connected at all times, loneliness in a new country is common. And when these young olim marry and start building families, they are acutely aware of the distance from their extended families in North America.

For Rachel and Michael Porcelain, a millennial couple from North America who now live in Modi’in with their two children, it has been hard to grow accustomed to Israeli culture. There is always that small thought in the back of their heads that maybe things would be easier back in Toronto. But easier isn’t necessarily better, and every time they discuss moving back, the conversation quickly ends because they know they can’t lead the lives they want anywhere but in Israel.

Sarah Kantor is the content manager for Nefesh B’Nefesh.

46 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

by Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. Some of the participants were remarkably enthusiastic: “Wow!” they said. “This is so beautiful.

We love keeping Shabbat.” They reveled in singing Shabbat songs and participating in oneg Shabbat; they wanted the intense good feeling Shabbat brings without being constrained by its restrictions. They insisted that God showers us with love and we just need to grasp that feeling. I believe there is a term for this religious approach—it’s called Christianity. Searching for spirituality is admirable, but let’s not neglect halachah.

Michael Rivlin, twenty-three City College

ALIYAH What made me—as a single twenty-four-year old—make aliyah from Baltimore three years ago? In Israel, I feel a sense of belonging. I first felt this the year I spent learning in Israel after high school, when my friends and I went to Malcha Mall in Jerusalem. When lunchtime rolled around, we actually ate in the food court—I had never been able to do back in the States! And while this may seem fairly trivial, to me it was an amazing experience; for the first time, I felt like I belonged.

Once I became an olah, this feeling of belonging only intensified.

The excitement for Jewish holidays begins as soon as the previous holiday ends; after enjoying my first Sukkot in Israel as an olah, I was surprised to see jelly donuts in grocery stores and bakeries only a week or so later. Similarly, after Chanukah ended, I began to see advertisements for Purim costumes everywhere.

If I were still living in the United States, I would most likely have to work on Fridays close to Shabbat, and constantly explain why I can’t be around on yom tov or eat what everyone else is eating. In Israel, however, I can be “normal,” like everyone else.

Gila Halpern, twenty-seven

Computer programmer and artist Beit Shemesh, Israel

at the Museum of Jewish Heritage

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$100,000 & OVER MR. & MRS. NEIL COHEN THE FALIC FAMILY FOUNDATION ALAN & BARBARA GINDI MORDECAI & MONIQUE KATZ DR. SHMUEL & EVELYN KATZ KARMELA & JERRY KLASNER STEPHEN & NATALY NEUWIRTH ERIC & GALE ROTHNER THE RUDERMAN FAMILY FOUNDATION IN MEMORY OF ANNE SAMSON A"H

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Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 49

Some of us are lucky enough to have had a teacher or a rebbe who forever changed something within us after spending time in his or her classroom. As students of all ages head back to school, we pause for a moment to pay tribute to the special teachers in our lives.

able enough to explain why I found Pride and Prejudice to be the most boring novel I had ever read!

In her class, we didn’t just read assigned Shakespeare plays; we acted them out. We also acted out he pretty, pony-tailed young woman perched more modern dramas, pausing to discuss and argue at the end of her desk was an anomaly, not anything like the other teachers we had that about the meanings of these works. Poetry came alive freshman year in high school. Miss G. was smart, fun as we recited poems in front of the class and later in and so cool. She switched her eyeglasses to match front of the entire school in our annual declamation her clothes and she shared fascinating stories about contests. It was a given that everyone in school waited her life. She taught not only by lecturing, but by anxiously for junior year and the magical experience making us participate and discuss. As a young teenof performing in front of a huge audience in the Junior ager, I knew that I had found my eventual vocation.

Class Play. (My year, I played Ed in “You Can’t Take I wanted to be just like my English teacher, Miss it With You.”) Susan Goodside, who would serve as my role model Miss Goodside eventually became Mrs. Katz. She Dr. Susan Katz, through most of my years at Esther Schoenfeld High formerly “Miss G” raised a family and went on to become the well-known School in New York. and much admired high school principal of Shulamith My favorite teacher taught me to love and appreciSchool for Girls in Brooklyn, New York. As for me, I don’t know ate literature. Her lessons were always innovative. Miss G.’s if I ever became just like my beloved teacher during my twencomposition topics were never routine, but rather challenging ty-seven-year career as an English teacher and later chair of the and often mystifying. What did “Chasing Rainbows” have to do English Department at Bruriah High School in New Jersey. But with our lives anyway? She taught us to put a great deal of thought into what we were writing before we put pen to paper. Book I certainly tried to emulate her example.

By Estelle Glass

T

reports were never mere written summaries; they often included oral presentations, where even I as a shy freshman felt comfort50 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Estelle Glass, a Teaneck resident, is a retired educator who is now happily writing her own essays.

ADVERTORIAL

By Numi (Homnick) Stern

A

s a thirteen-year-old girl just starting high school at Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov in Chicago, I probably would have preferred a younger, “cooler,” more dynamic Ivrit teacher. However, I quickly learned that my assigned teacher was Rebbetzin Ella Soloveichik, a”h, the wife of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, z”tl and fondly known by all of her students as “Rebbetzin.” Born and educated in Lithuania, Rebbetzin spoke with a slight accent and carried herself with the regality of a European rebbetzin of old. She came to school dressed in a formal suit or blouse with a matching hat and she hardly moved away from the desk or chalkboard while teaching. Soon enough she won us over with her gentle and loving demeanor, her sincere interest in each student, her determination to involve every student in the discussion or lesson and her deep passion for the subject at hand.

Over the course of that year, several of my friends and I found reasons to sporadically stop by her house on Shabbat or Sunday afternoons to say hello. She was always glad to see us and welcome us inside. I still carry with me the image of her saintly husband sitting in his wheelchair at the dining room table writing notes and chiddushei Torah. He was undeterred from this sacred task despite being partially paralyzed by a stroke many years earlier. Seeing Rav Ahron in action helped me to appreciate the stature of our Rebbetzin, his devoted partner, helpmate and caregiver.

When did Rebbetzin change my life? I cannot pinpoint one episode or moment that was life altering. The effect Rebbetzin had on her students, myself included, was subtle; she slowly chipped away at the crust of American teenagehood that encased so much of our souls. Just the fact that we came to love and respect a refined, elderly and scholarly person such as she helped us to mature and rid ourselves of some of the myopia and egocentricity of childhood. And while I did not realize it initially, the lessons and values that Rebbetzin imparted to us had a profound impact—an impact that is still with me today, many years after her passing.

Rebbetzin was my teacher again in eleventh grade; the subject was Jewish history during the Second Temple era.

In twelfth grade, it was back to Ivrit with a focus on Hebrew literature. She was a wellspring of Torah knowledge and a master of Jewish history. While I do not remember much of the content of those lessons, “Devarim hayotz’im min halev nichnasim el halev, Words that come from the heart [of the speaker] penetrate the heart [of the listener].” Her ahavat Yisrael (love of every Jew), ahavat Eretz Yisrael (love of the Land of Israel) and ahavat Lashon HaKodesh (love of the Hebrew language) were constantly being transmitted, no matter what the day’s lesson was meant to cover. Those three loves have stayed with me, and I’m sure countless other students of hers would say the same.

“Mi k’amcha Yisrael, Who is like your nation Yisrael?” and “Yisrael, af al pi shechata, Yisrael hu, A Jew, even when he sins, remains a Jew” were both common expressions of hers. Rebbetzin implored us never to say anything negative about another Jew—certainly not in her classroom. One of the first Hebrew pieces she taught us was Rabbi Yehuda

Not all tzitzit are created equal.

Yes, they all have four corners. And yes, they all have thirty-two strings. But not every brand of tzitzit was designed to be the utmost in kashrut and hidurim, while still being high quality, functional and comfortable.

Thirty years ago, NeaTzit invented the idea of t-shirt comfort in tzitzit. No longer did fulfilling this most important mitzvah involve inferior quality materials, discomfort or lowering one’s standards of halachah. With the direction and supervision of leading rabbanim and roshei yeshivot, such as HaRav Ovadia Yosef, HaRav Chaim Scheinberg and HaRav Nissim Karelitz, NeaTzit became the gold standard in the mitzvah of tzitzit. The strings themselves are made l’kedushat tzitzit. The side snaps under the arms are not simply functional, but ensure that two sides of the begged are not sewn together, yet still allow for comfort.

Special lamb’s wool was spun to create a soft, breathable fabric to allow wearing wool tzitit even in the warm summer months.

Over the past decades many have copied the concept and created t-shirts with tzitzit, but none have come close to the original quality, comfort and kashrut of NeaTzit. When one buys NeaTzit, he knows he is fulfilling the mitzvah of tzitzit with every hidur and in complete comfort.

WHY OPEN ORTHODOXY IS NOT ORTHODOX “…Open Orthodoxy is a movement which poses as Orthodoxy, with teachers who pose as halachic authorities and students who pose as Orthodox Rabbis.”

— From the Foreword

by Harav Aharon Feldman

Available on Amazon and at many local Jewish bookstores.

David Rosenthal is a musmach of Ner Israel Rabbinical College where he has been a talmid for the past ten years.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 51

HaLevi’s famous poem of longing for Eretz Yisrael, Libi incorporating as many of her favorite expressions as we could.

BaMizrach. “Kol hamitabel al Yerushalayim zocheh v’ro’eh Rebbetzin was out of school at that time undergoing medical b’simchata, Whoever [truly] mourns for [the destruction of ] treatment, and we were unable to share the poem with her. She Jerusalem will merit to see her rejoicing” was another ma’amar missed our high school graduation due to her illness and passed away that summer. Yet I was comforted to hear that Rebbetzin’s she repeated many times. daughter read our poem to her during the last few She exposed us to the gamut of political and social days of her life and it had brought a smile to her face. views of Medinat Yisrael, with two primary lessons: Though I was out of town at the time of her passing to treat every Jew with love and respect and to be and missed her levayah, I did make it back to Chicago grateful for the opportunity to walk the streets of in time to be menachem avel the family. The family Eretz Yisrael, to live there and to learn Torah there— described how Rebbetzin was at peace at the end of an opportunity many great people before us never her life, like Shlomo HaMelech’s Eishet Chayil, “Vahad. What about the language—was it Lashon HaKotis’chak l’yom acharon, And smiling, she faced the last desh or Ivrit? For Rebbetzin, they were one and the day.” How she had the words of that epic Hebrew same. Yes, she wanted Jews to be comfortable with poem and prayer, Adon Olam, on her lips; “V’im ruchi spoken Hebrew. But the Rebbetzin’s Hebrew was g’viyati, Hashem li v’lo ira, And with my spirit, my not “Modern Hebrew.” Her Hebrew was replete with Rebbetzin body as well [I entrust to God], God is with me, I shall pesukim from the Nevi’im and ma’amarei Chazal, Ella Soloveichik not be afraid.” sayings of the Sages, many of which she insisted we How befitting that Rebbetzin passed away during memorize. Rebbetzin was also a poet. She wrote a variety of poems in Hebrew, some light and playful, some more the Nine Days; her neshamah always seemed to be in sync with heartfelt. In so many ways, she demonstrated to us the richness the history of Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael. I have no doubt that Rebbetzin will rejoice together with the Jewish nation when and versatility of the Hebrew language.

Toward the end of twelfth grade, for our school’s annual li- Yerushalayim is finally rebuilt—may it be speedily in our days. brary tea the entire student body was asked to submit short

The effect Rebbetzin had on her students, myself included, was subtle; she slowly chipped away at the crust of American teenagehood that encased so much of our souls. essays or poems pertaining to the theme of “hero.” My friend Shoshana and I made an acrostic of the words eishet chayil (in Hebrew, of course) describing our esteemed Rebbetzin, while

By Charles Sheer

M

y chavruta (study partner) and I were sitting in the beit midrash on a hot Los Angeles Shabbat afternoon. This was pre-A/C days and those long LA Shabbat afternoons could be brutal. But we had not finished our review of the gemara we had studied that week. We arranged to spend an hour before Minchah to assure that we understood the material.

We were a well-matched pair and we enjoyed studying together.

My partner was quick and smart; I tended to be plodding and careful. We were studying Bava Metzia. Shortly into our review we got stuck on a passage that didn’t seem to make sense. “How did Rebbe explain this line?” my chavruta asked. We couldn’t recall if he had discussed this topic.

Our teacher, Rabbi Simcha Wasserman, was the son of one of the illustrious leaders of European Jewry pre-WWII, Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman. Rav Elchonon was rosh yeshivah of the famous yeshivah in Baranovitch, and the author of many scholarly works on Talmud and Jewish thought. He was killed in WWII by the Nazis. His son, our rebbe, had established yeshivot all over the

52 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Numi (Homnick) Stern graduated from Hanna Sacks Bais Yaakov in 2001. She currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio with her family and is a practicing speech-language pathologist.

world and was renowned as a teacher and for his saintly perfeatures. (Rebbe had a wonderfully friendly face with twinkling eyes, an expressive smile and a portly physique. When I first sonality. Over the two years we had been in his Talmud class, met him, I had this irreverent thought that he would make a Rebbe had advanced our Talmud skills from basic reading to a great Santa Claus.) He tilted his hat back on his head and enmore thoughtful analysis. At that youthful age, I did not recogthusiastically said, “Good question! So, did you find an answer?” nize what a master pedagogue he was. To this day, I “Yes,” I said. “We thought you could explain the have not encountered such a skilled teacher, whether gemara in the following fashion.” I cautiously proin my yeshivah study, college or graduate study. Rebbe ceeded to share with him our interpretation. Now, would ask us, “What is the one word on the page that mind you, this was not a major scholarly discovery.

Tosafot”—the classical and standard medieval comBut it was a reading that worked and we were pleased mentator, printed on the side of the Talmud page in with our solution. every edition since the sixteenth century— “was bothAnd so was Rebbe. He looked at the two of us and ered by, and how did he resolve the problem?” He said, “That’s exactly what the Shittah M’Kubetzet says.” imparted his masterful analytical skills to decode a (The Shittah M’Kubetzet is a classic seventeenth-centext, but even more importantly, he motivated us to tury anthology of medieval commentators to the Tallove learning. mud.) We were both astonished at this and sat there Rabbi As we did our chazarah, we struggled to recall if Simcha Wasserman in silence. We two California boys—a far cry from Rebbe had discussed our problem. We worked on the Photo: Moshe Yarmish Talmudic scholars—had developed a resolution to this question that was formulated almost a half a millensugya (Talmudic case) for a while and, to our delight, nium ago which was included in one of the standard Talmud developed a solution. At our stage in learning, it was not that commentaries. usual for us to do so. We were pleased with ourselves.

Before we could say anything, someone announced that it was As we relaxed at our study table, we saw that Rebbe had come time for Minchah. Rebbe retreated to his seat near the aron kodesh at the front of the beit midrash and services began. But I It was our debut that could not concentrate on them. I kept thinking about what had linked us to our revered just transpired. When I looked towards Rebbe I noted that he was looking right at me. His eyes locked with mine as he glanced teacher, but also with over the tall shtender in front of him. I suspect that neither of the generations that us paid much attention to our Minchah prayers that Shabbat preceded us. We had afternoon. entered a community of As I reflect back on that moment, I think all of us—students life-long students who and teacher—intuitively felt that something vitally important had occurred. Our resolution of that difficult passage entailed place study—Talmud, our entry into the world of Talmud study. It was our debut that especially—and ideas linked us to our revered teacher, but also with the generations as a central element of that preceded us. We had entered a community of life-long their lives. students who place study—Talmud, especially—and ideas as a central element of their lives.

Rebbe never said anything to me about that moment, but he really didn’t have to. He had the special pleasure of witnessing the entry of two of his students into his world and the grand World of the Talmud. What a precious moment for a teacher; what a moving moment for his students. The look of delight and pride on his face are still present in my memory, even though the episode occurred more than fifty years ago. g

in to the beit midrash. He spied us, and the Talmud texts and commentaries spread about on our table. “Good Shabbos,” he said. “So, how has your chazarah gone?” “We were doing pretty well,” I said, “until we reached this line and got stuck.” I proceeded to tell him what bothered us.

When I finished presenting our question, Rebbe looked up at us with a broad smile. He paused for a moment, as if he had encountered us for the first time and wanted to learn our facial 54 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Rabbi Charles Sheer is staff chaplain at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, and is on the faculty at the Bioethics Institute at New York Medical College. He holds an MA in Talmudic literature and semichah from Yeshiva University. For thirty-four years he was the Jewish chaplain at Columbia University and Barnard College.

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Where Knowledge and Values Meet Touro is an equal opportunity institution. For Touro’s complete Non-Discrimination Statement, please visit: www.touro.edu

Israel

By Peter Abelow

On and Off the Beaten Track in . . .

the Footsteps of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs

Eretz Bereshit—Genesis Land

M

A caravan of camels walking through the rugged sandy hills of the Judean Desert on the way to Avraham’s tent. Photos: Sasson Tiram Photography

uch of our contemporary Jewish practice is designed to transform history into personal memory. I once heard someone explain the difference between history and memory as follows: history begins with the word “his,” indicating that this is someone else’s story. Memory begins with “me,” connoting a personal recollection of one’s own story. A visit to Eretz Bereshit (Genesis Land) is not a tour; it is an encounter with the Jewish past that has the potential of transforming Biblical history into personal memory.

Eretz Bereshit provides the opportunity to not only learn about the period of Avraham and Sarah, but to experience it in the geographic region where the events of the Tanach took place.

Visitors dress in period-appropriate garb and ride on the backs of camels against the breathtaking scenic backdrop that our ancestors were accustomed to: the rugged wilderness of Midbar Yehudah, the Judean Desert. Visiting Eretz Bereshit provides an opportunity to connect with our personal memory, not just to learn about Jewish and Biblical history.

Only twenty minutes from Jerusalem, Eretz Bereshit is located in the town of Alon, just off the road that descends from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, Masada and Ein Gedi, near Ma’aleh Adumim. Upon leaving your vehicle, you will be met by Avraham’s trusted servant, Eliezer, and mount a camel for a short journey to Avraham’s tent. To truly feel transported back in time, each visitor is given a robe—a rectangular piece of cloth with an opening for one’s head and a cord to tie around one’s waist.

Traveling on camelback through the hot sandy desert, across a landscape scarcely unchanged in 4,000 years, while listening

to Eliezer’s narrative, it is easy to close your eyes and imagine yourself living in the time of the Patriarch himself, sitting in his tent, scouring the sandy hills in every direction for guests to partake of his hospitality. Your departure from the twenty-first century into the world of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs is now complete.

Genesis Land is the brainchild of Boaz Ido, a Jerusalem native who created the Biblical-style ranch in 1996. Attracted to the area’s rich Biblical history, he moved with his family to Alon.

When he first visited the area, Ido stood at a point that overlooked the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley, and was immediately reminded of the story of Avraham and his nephew Lot’s parting.

It was at that moment that the idea of Eretz Bereshit was born.

An ideal attraction for young and old alike, Eretz Bereshit offers a variety of experiences; the standard package includes a camel ride, Eliezer’s hospitality and pita baking as children and adults alike are given the opportunity to bake their own pitot over a fire, as it was done in ancient times. The experience is also a learning opportunity about the mitzvot involved in making bread, such as separating challah. Eliezer is frequently joined by other characters in the Biblical story—Yitzchak, Rivka or Yosef and his brothers—all of whom act out the Biblical scenes in a way that appeals to the particular audience.

In Eretz Bereshit, one gets the opportunity to touch the past in a very real and concrete way. The attraction offers a number of hands-on experiences designed to create personal memories and to enhance the visit for children. One of the most enjoyable and challenging ones is shepherding a small flock of goats and sheep from point to point. (Participants quickly learn that it is harder than it looks!) They also learn about the qualities of a

Peter Abelow is a licensed tour guide and the associate director of Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel. He can be reached at 011.972.2.671.3518 or at peter@keshetisrael.co.il.

56 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Portrait of the Rambam.

A staff member portraying Eliezer (far right) assists visitors in mounting their camels as they prepare to travel to Avraham’s tent.

The main entrance to Genesis Land, welcoming visitors to the Biblical-style ranch.

good shepherd, traits that were regarded as essential in order to be an effective leader of the Jewish people. (Note that some of the Jewish people’s greatest leaders, such as Avraham, Moshe and King David, were shepherds.) Reflect too on the words of the Twenty-third Psalm, “The Lord is my Shepherd,” and the implications of that well-known phrase.

Another popular activity at Eretz Bereshit is writing in ancient Hebrew script on parchment with ink and quill. Children get a chance to learn about the history of the letters of the Aleph Bet. For example, the letter Bet originally looked like a house (bayit) and the letter Ayin looked like an eye (ayin). Additional activities include creating a picture from colored mosaic stones and play58 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

ing archeologist as participants attempt to reconstruct a piece of pottery from shards. Eretz Bereshit can also arrange for jeep rides across the endless desert landscape or to Ein Mabua, a nearby peaceful oasis with a cool refreshing spring. It also offers an opportunity for an overnight in the desert with one’s children (up to two adults and two kids) in the Eretz Bereshit Tzimmer.

Keep in mind it is one large room with mattresses on the floor.

Be sure to call Eretz Bereshit in advance to arrange for an English-language tour at 02.997.4477.

For further information, visit the Eretz Bereshit web site: www. genesisland.co.il/s-category/Desert-Camping-In-Israel. g

INSIDE To all of our enemies: Nitzachnu, we won. You can kill the bodies of our children, but you cannot kill our spirit.”

OU by the

157,332

$

Miriam Peretz, addressing the crowd of NCSYers at Yom NCSY held at Bar-Ilan University this past July. The highly anticipated annual event brought together more than 1,200 NCSYers from eleven summer programs in Israel. Miriam lost two of her sons to wars in Israel—Uriel in 1998 and Eliraz in 2010. Today, she travels the world as a motivational speaker, telling her story.

Amount raised for NCSY’s Sefer Torah Campaign, as of August 24th 2016.

“

Teens from 11 summer programs that attended Yom NCSY 2016

At a Hachnasat Sefer Torah, we bring the Torah to its final resting place—our hearts.”

Rabbi Moshe Benovitz, Managing Director of NCSY, commencing the Hachnasat Sefer Torah of the NCSY sefer Torah at Yom NCSY. The sefer Torah was dedicated by David Cutler, Director of NCSY Summer, and his wife Marilyn, in memory of David’s parents, Rabbi Joel and Mrs. Ellen Cutler, z”l. The sefer Torah will be used at national NCSY events.

“

We all struggle with feeling alone. Having this network of rabbis to talk to—to be mentors and to mentor—is very important.”

Rabbi Michael Davies, Rabbi of Congregation Dor Tikvah in Charleston, South Carolina, speaking about the rabbinical retreat for Southeast Region rabbis, held in Naples, Florida this past May. The three-day event was organized by Naftali Herrmann, OU Regional Director for Synagogues, Southeast.

60 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

1,220 110

NCSY chapters in cities across the US

23

JLIC campuses across the US and Canada

23

Number of inclusive Yachad summer programs in 2016

NJ Budget 2017 Significant Gains in Non-Public School Funding Since 2011, OU Advocacy-NJ has advocated for a variety of programs and funding to benefit New Jersey Jewish day schools. $9,336,898

Nonprofit Security Grant Program

Awards Millions to Jewish Schools and Institutions The Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), spearheaded by the OU Advocacy Center and administered by the Dept. of Homeland Security, allocated $20 million this year, of which $5.2 million will go to 66 Jewish schools and shuls.

Since 2007, the NSGP has given $175 million in grants to nonprofit institutions, including 1,000+ Jewish schools and shuls.

Unfortunately, funding for NSGP dropped over the years from its original level of $25 million; OU Advocacy fought to boost the funding from $13 million back to $20 million, and it continues to fight every year to ensure this critical program receives sufficient Congressional funding.

$3,326,334

2011-2012

$

10

$

$

118 per student

224 per student

20

2016-2017

Due to OU Advocacy's efforts, New Jersey day schools and yeshivot are recieving

6 million more than they did in 2011.

acrossthethe NCSY across COUNTRY

36 states with NCSY New NCSY chapters: Denver, Colorado; Great Neck, New York; Westchester County, New York and Boca Raton, Florida.

Total number of NCSY chapters in the US:

62 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

110

0

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Security Grants in Millions

2015

2016

NEW FACES Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt is the newly appointed Director of Media Strategy, serving as media liaison and communications strategist for the organization. She is a widely published journalist and teaches journalism at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. In her spare time, she moonlights as a rebbetzin alongside her husband on the Upper East Side.

Rabbi David and Rivka Wietchner are the first OU-JLIC couple at the University of Chicago, coming to the college from Jerusalem, along with their three children. They eagerly anticipate opening their home to students for meals, conversation or a game of Catan with Rabbi David. Rabbi David received semichah from Rabbi Shlomo Riskin in Israel as well as an MA in philosophy from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Rivka is currently pursuing an MA in the policy and theory of art from Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Bryan and Sondra Borenstein are the first OU-JLIC couple at California State University at Northridge (CSUN). Both natives of California, they can’t wait to share their passions—teaching Torah, yoga (Sondra) and hiking (Rabbi Bryan)—and for students to join their Shabbat table for some pretzel challah! Rabbi Bryan received semichah from Yeshivat Torah M’Tzion, and Sondra studied at Aish HaTorah in Los Angeles, Bais Chana in Minnesota and Midreshet Rachel v’Chaya in Jerusalem.

Yachad’s new Assistant Director, Marla Rottenstreich hopes to support and coordinate all aspects of Yachad operations while working to promote the amazing work of Yachad to the Jewish community. As a fitness enthusiast, Marla will also encourage everyone’s participation at the Team Yachad Miami Marathon 2017! Rottenstreich previously served as marketing and program director at RAVSAK: The Jewish Community Day School Network.

FAMILIAR FACES The former Assistant Director, OU West Coast, Rabbi Adir Posy has been promoted to OU Regional Director for Synagogues, Western States. The region includes Texas through Alberta, Canada and as far east as Missouri. Rabbi Posy, who also serves as Associate Rabbi at Beth Jacob Congregation in Los Angeles, is a father of six and is keenly interested in the intersection of medicine and halachah, and the construction of community eruvin.

64 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Rabbi Yosi Eisen is the newly appointed OU Regional Director for Synagogues, New England/Montreal.

Rabbi Eisen hopes to be a welcoming point of access for rabbis, lay leaders and Jewish communal servants. He is a 2015 Grinspoon Award recipient, and enjoys playing basketball, tennis and chess.

Rabbi Eisen previously served as OU-JLIC Torah educator at UMass Amherst and NCSY Director of Programming for Western Massachusetts.

RECENT SNAPSHOTS Orthodox Union leaders met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this past July to discuss the relationship between American Orthodox Jewry and Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the OU as an important bridge between the United States and Israel.

From left: Allen Fagin, OU Executive Vice President; Nathan Diament, Executive Director of OU Advocacy; Martin Nachimson, OU President; Harvey Blitz, Chair of the OU Kosher Comission; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Photos: Benji Cheirif

From left: Mr. Fagin; Mr. Nachimson; Mr. Diament; Rabbi Avi Berman, Executive Director, Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center (OU Israel Center); Daniel Benedict; Mrs. Liz Nachimson; Tila Levy-Falic; Eli Groner, Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office; and PM Netanyahu.

Some seventy OU Benefactor Circle members were joined by OU and NCSY leadership and Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett at the inaugural Benefactor Circle dinner reception. Held at Bar-Ilan University just prior to the Yom NCSY event, the dinner was a forum through which to recognize and thank the OU’s most generous supporters.

“During the excitement of Yom NCSY, this intimate gathering was a wonderful way to expose our Benefactor Circle members to the work of the OU—specifically NCSY—and to see firsthand how events like Yom NCSY are made possible through their generosity,” says Arnold Gerson, OU Chief Institutional Advancement Officer.

In his remarks, MK Bennett stressed the importance of outreach to unaffiliated Jewish youths and particularly the importance of bringing these teens to Israel.

From left, seated: Rabbi Berman; Rabbi Micah Greenland, International Director, NCSY; Mr. Fagin; and MK Naftali Bennett. Standing: Mr. Nachimson; Arnold Gerson, OU Chief Institutional Advancement Officer and Jeff Korbman, Director of Development, NCSY.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 65

THINK YOU ARE THE

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THINK AGAIN Shalom Task Force has received thousands of calls, and offers a confidential place to turn to for help, resources and support.

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O

ne of my favorite philanthropy stories is about Oseola McCarty, a woman from southern Mississippi. She had been born to a single mother during the Jim Crow era, and spent her working years as a washerwoman, doing laundry by hand. When she finally retired at the age of eighty-six, she had a six-figure sum in her savings account—and she decided to give most of it away. It went to a local university to provide scholarships for needy students.

The story made national news because Ms. McCarty was far from the typical donor to charity. She had not made large gifts during her lifetime, and on paper she didn’t seem to be someone who could do so. Today, more than twenty years after she made her gift, the college is still giving scholarships in her name.

Closer to home, the Orthodox Union received word recently that it had been named in the will of a woman from Queens, Mrs. Strauss,* who had passed away in her nineties. Mrs. Strauss and her late husband, a long-serving pulpit rabbi, had no descendants and were eager to use their modest funds to continue serving the Orthodox community.

The funds received were used toward several programs, including NCSY, Yachad, OU Israel and a multi-year dedication for one of the OU’s online learning initiatives. Through these channels, the Strauss family’s commitment to Torah and mitzvah observance is being continued past their lifetimes.

The OU is currently broadening its outreach efforts to inform people about leaving a legacy gift to our organization. Such a gift is easy to create, offers flexibility as to how it will be used, and can benefit thousands of Jews in one’s community, in Israel, or elsewhere. The simplest way to make this happen is through a gift specified in a will or a trust document.

Donors approach such gifts from a variety of perspectives.

Some are eager to perpetuate their giving to causes that were dear to them; others are seeking to honor or memorialize someone; and some seek to make a lasting statement about their family’s values. Our staff can answer questions you might have about leaving a legacy gift, confidentially and at no charge. We can also speak to your advisors (attorneys, accountants or others) to ensure that your wishes can be achieved.

Leaving money to charity upon one’s passing is, in fact, a longstanding Jewish practice. It is referenced in the Talmud and the halachic codes, and there is documentary evidence for such gifts in medieval Jewish communities, both Ashkenazic and Sephardic. Such gifts have made possible the growth and development of kehillot throughout history. The OU has served American Jewry for nearly 120 years. With the assistance of legacy gifts secured through our new initiative, we are looking forward to strengthening the community well into the future. *The family name has been changed for purposes of this article.

Alan Goldman, MSW, JD is Director of Development for the OU-JLIC program and also manages the organization’s Planned Giving activities. He can be reached at 646. 459. 5144 or at goldmana@ou.org.

The Mesorat HaRav Birkon— Wintman Edition

Edited by Rabbi David Hellman OU Press and Koren Publishers

With some measure of justice, we can apply the Gemara’s description of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai to Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Rav: “He did not leave unstudied Scripture, Mishnah, Gemara, halachah, Aggadah . . . great matters or small matters.” In fact, the Rav’s attention to the “small matters” was a defining characteristic of his greatness—he discovered the halachic as well as the philosophical meaning of many “mere customs” and seemingly minor practices. Thus, in some ways, the birkon—an often overlooked book of Jewish liturgy—represents an ideal vehicle for transmitting the Rav’s rich world of fundamental concepts and ideas.

The Mesorat HaRav Birkon is a unique work that provides a companion for Shabbat, yom tov, and other special occasions—such as the wedding, sheva berachot, and the brit milah ceremonies—as well as for the blessings recited every day. Rabbi David Hellman has skillfully assembled the Rav’s thought on these topics from a diverse collection of sources to form a running commentary on the birkon. The Mesorat HaRav Birkon also contains a section of reshimot (summaries) and hanhagot (personal customs), which record in-depth halachic explanations and the Rav’s personal practices, compiled in consultation with those who knew the Rav firsthand to ensure their accuracy. In addition, the Birkon includes three essays on the Rav’s conceptual understanding of Birkat Hamazon, zimmun and Kiddush— areas in which the Rav’s major contributions required a full-length treatment.

Following upon the success of the Mesorat HaRav volumes of the kinot, siddur and Chumash, the Mesorat HaRav Birkon will undoubtedly be received eagerly as another outstanding addition to the library of the Rav’s masterful works.

68 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Person in the Parasha: Discovering the Human Element in the Weekly Torah Portion

By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb OU Press and Maggid Books

As many readers of these pages are already aware, Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, OU executive vice president, emeritus, served both as a longtime community rabbi and as a trained therapist. The perspective resulting from this rare combination is the inspiration for this refreshingly original work on the weekly parashah. In a series of brief essays on each Torah portion, Rabbi Weinreb focuses on the psychological elements of the narrative—the personalities encountered in the Torah text, but also the personalities Rabbi Weinreb has encountered over his long career, who never fail to provide enlightening examples to drive the given point home.

The highly readable essays in this volume, culled from Rabbi Weinreb’s weekly online parashah column,

We learn from personal psychology mentors no less than from Mildred, the gentile cleaning lady who meticulously cleaned every book in the house for Passover. (available at www.ou.org), do not follow the familiar format of question-and-answer or focus on the finer points of textual analysis, but instead reflect on broader themes and personal experiences which lend themselves to further reflection. Rabbi Weinreb invokes a wide range of thinkers, well-known and otherwise, from both the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds, whose contributions help further our understanding. But perhaps the sharpest tool in his arsenal is the wellplaced anecdote. We learn from personal psychology mentors no less than from Mildred, the gentile cleaning lady who meticulously cleaned every book in the house for Passover, uninstructed: “When I told Mildred that she really didn’t have to do that, she responded,

‘Rabbi! I am not going to allow a young upstart like you to tell me how to prepare for Passover. I learned about chametz from Rabbi Rosenkrantz, and he was old enough to have been your grandfather!’”

Rabbi Weinreb’s Person in the Parasha conveys a personal touch and adds a layer of psychological nuance to the study of the weekly parashah.

Coming Closer: Understanding and Experiencing Tefillah

By Rabbi Yisrael Shlomo Goldfinger OU Press

In Coming Closer: Understanding and Experiencing Tefillah, Rabbi Yisrael Shlomo Goldfinger has developed a creative new conceptual framework for understanding our prayers based on the mystically inclined teachings of Nachmanides (Ramban), Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (Ramchal) and others.

On the basis of the conceptual groundwork developed in the first part of the book, Rabbi Goldfinger is able to explain the ebb and flow of tefillah and how tefillah

contains the ideal framework for the relationship between man and God. According to Rabbi Goldfinger, tefillah is organized to foster a relationship between God and His people. Subjecting the sequence and words of the prayers to close analysis, Rabbi Goldfinger un-

Rabbi Goldfinger is able to explain the ebb and flow of tefillah and how tefillah contains the ideal framework for the relationship between man and God. covers patterns that convey closeness and distance, the attitude of a son and that of a servant, which characterize our relationship with the Almighty. With these tools, Rabbi Goldfinger explains the sequence of Pesukei de’Zimra, the blessings of the Shema, and the crescendo reached in the Amidah, in which we can attain closeness to our Creator.

The book, written in an accessible style, simplifies what would otherwise remain abstruse concepts for the reader. Coming Closer succeeds in explicating the prayers in the siddur such that they can enable what they are intended to do, bringing us closer to God.

ORDER ONLINE AT

OUPRESS.ORG

YA C H A D presents International Inclusion and Special Education Conferences

Beyond the Textbook

Nurturing Our Students While We Teach

Featured presenters: Rabbi David Abramchik, Teresa Garland, Dr. Karen Gazith, Batya Jacob, Dr. Jeffrey Lichtman and Anne Townsend

TORONTO Monday, October 31, 2016 Aish Hatorah 949 Clark Avenue West, Thornhill, ON

BALTIMORE Tuesday, December 6, 2016 Weinberg Jewish Community Center 5700 Park Heights Avenue, Park Heights, MD

3700 Coconut Creek Parkway, Coconut Creek, FL

Keynote Speaker:

Keynote Speaker:

Keynote Speaker:

Dr. Robert Brooks

SOUTH FLORIDA Wednesday, January 11, 2017 South Florida Jewish Academy

Dr. Robert Brooks

Harry and Rosemary Wong

For more information on pricing, multiple educator discounts and other conferences in a location near you, contact Batya Jacob at 212.613.8127 or batyaj@ou.org

To register visit: www.yachad.org/specialedconferences Collaboration to provide the best possible Jewish, general and special education for all students regardless of learning challenges or disabilities Yachad is an agency of the Orthodox Union

Because Everyone Belongs

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 69

The Chef’s Table

By Norene Gilletz

HEARTY Vegetarian Dishes To Serve In the Sukkah

Underground Stew Photo: Mike McColl

This year, Sukkot takes place in the latter part of October, so unless you live in Australia, chances are the weather will be somewhat chilly. There’s nothing better than serving family and friends a big bowl of nourishing soup or some hearty chili to warm everyone up on those cool fall nights. These hearty, healthy, meat-free recipes are sure to please everyone at your Sukkot table, meat-eaters and vegetarians/vegans alike.

Lily’s Red Lentil Soup (Vegetarian/Vegan, Gluten-Free) Adapted from Nourish: Whole Foods Featuring Seeds, Nuts & Beans by Nettie Cronish and Cara Rosenbloom, RD (Whitecap) Yields 4 servings When Cara Rosenbloom decided to become a vegetarian at age thirteen, her late mom, Lily, supported her decision and began experimenting with beans and lentils so Cara would have something good to eat. This was the soup that Lily would make most often, and always to rave reviews.

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 shallot, minced 2 carrots, diced 1 celery stalk, diced 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced 1 cup red lentils, rinsed 4 cups no-salt-added vegetable broth (see following recipe) 1 tsp dried dill 1/2 tsp sea salt 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat.

Add garlic and shallot. Cook until fragrant and tender, about 3-5 minutes.

Add carrots, celery and sweet potato and combine well. Cook about 5 minutes.

Stir in red lentils and broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover

and let cook about 25 minutes, or until lentils have thickened.

Add dill, salt and pepper, adjusting to taste. Serve immediately. Freezes well.

No-Salt-Added Vegetable Broth Adapted from Nourish: Whole Foods Featuring Seeds, Nuts & Beans by Nettie Cronish and Cara Rosenbloom, RD (Whitecap) Yields 10 cups Soup broth can be used to add taste to sauces, stews, salad dressings, stir-fries and leafy greens. A basic broth uses onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, celery, carrots, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Dominating flavors, such as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and peppers, are to be avoided. They overwhelm the subtle flavors of the other ingredients and can be bitter.

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 onion, diced 2 leeks, sliced thinly (white and pale green parts only) 4 carrots, diced 2 celery stalks, diced 6 medium tomatoes, quartered 3 cups sliced button mushrooms 2/3 cup green lentils 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil 4 bay leaves 1/2 tsp black peppercorns 10 cups water

Norene Gilletz is the leading author of kosher cookbooks in Canada. Visit her web site at www.gourmania.com or e-mail her at goodfood@gourmania.com.

70 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

COMING TO ISRAEL?

Design: Yael Hauftmann / OU Israel

Make sure the OU ISRAEL CENTER is on your “to do” list

Touring w Learning w Socializing We are the HEART of the English-speaking community in the HEART of Yerushalayim OU ISRAEL

/OU ISRAEL

l

WWW.OUISRAEL.ORG 22 Keren Hayesod St., POB 37015

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Yerushalayim 9137001

The Seymour J. Abrams Orthodox Union Jerusalem World Center

l

Tel: 972-2-560-9100

In a large stockpot over medium heat, warm the oil. Add garlic, onion and leeks. Cook for 5 minutes, or until softened.

Stir in carrots and celery; cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add tomatoes, mushrooms, lentils, parsley, basil, bay leaves and peppercorns. Cover with water. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to low; simmer covered for 30 minutes, stirring often.

Strain through a fine sieve, pressing against vegetable mixture with the back of a large wooden spoon to extract all the liquid.

Cool before storing.

Store in jars in the refrigerator or freezer.

Norene’s Note: Leftover broth will keep in the fridge for 5 days.

Nettie’s Underground Stew (Vegetarian/Vegan, Gluten-Free) Adapted from Nourish: Whole Foods Featuring Seeds, Nuts & Beans by Nettie Cronish and Cara Rosenbloom, RD (Whitecap) Yields 6 servings Peanuts, carrots, celery root, sweet potatoes and parsnip all grow underground and retain a rich array of vitamins and minerals from the soil.

4 carrots, diced 1 celery root, diced 2 parsnips, diced

1 medium sweet potato, peeled and diced 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, divided 1 tsp sea salt, divided 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper 1 tsp ground cinnamon 1 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg 1 onion, diced 1/2 cup dry white wine 4 cups no-salt-added vegetable broth 14 oz no-salt-added pinto beans, drained and rinsed 2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary 2 tsp finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley 1/4 cup roasted, salted peanuts, for garnish Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix carrots, celery root, parsnips and sweet potatoes with 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, cinnamon, paprika and nutmeg. Transfer to baking sheet in a single layer and roast until they are fork tender, about 25 minutes.

Heat the remaining 1 Tbsp oil in a large stockpot over medium heat. Add onions and allow to brown, 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

Add wine and cook until it has reduced by half, 3-5 minutes.

Add broth and beans and bring to a boil. Add the roasted vegetables. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.

Add rosemary and parsley to the stew; remove from heat. Add to serving bowl and garnish with peanuts.

SACRIFICE NOTHING 72 YU-SacrificeNothing_JA.indd I JEWISH ACTION Fall 1 5777/2016

9/2/16 8:12 AM

Apple Pear Strudel Photo: Doug Gilletz

Norene’s Kasha Chili (Vegetarian/Vegan, Gluten-Free) Adapted from Norene’s Healthy Kitchen: Eat Your Way to Good Health (Whitecap) Yields 8 cups Whole grain kasha provides a meaty texture to this meatless chili, which only takes 30 minutes to prepare and cook. Steaming hot, fiber-packed kasha chili is sure to warm you up on a chilly day!

1 can (28 oz) diced or stewed tomatoes 3 1/2 cups vegetable broth 1 can (19 oz) black beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed 1 large onion, chopped 1 red or green bell pepper, chopped 1 cup sliced mushrooms 2 cloves garlic (about 1-2 tsp minced) salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 Tbsp chili powder (or to taste) 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder 1 tsp each paprika, cumin and oregano 3/4 cup wholegrain or medium-grain kasha (buckwheat groats) In a large pot, combine all the ingredients except the kasha and mix well; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

Stir in the kasha. Cover and simmer for 15 minutes longer or until the kasha is tender, stirring occasionally. If the chili is too thick, thin with a little water. Serve immediately. Keeps 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator and freezes well.

ACHIEVE ANYTHING YU-SacrificeNothing_JA.indd 2

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 73 9/2/16 8:12 AM

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Eligibility: OU members, spouses and dependent children.

GREATER NEW YORK AREA Parkside Memorial Chapels 1-877-LEVAYA-OU • 1.800.538.2926 Taharot are performed by the Chevra Kaddishot of the Vaad Harabonim of Queens (in Brooklyn by the Va’ad Harrabonim of Flatbush).

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Norene’s Note: Variation: Substitute 1/2 cup of uncooked green or brown lentils for the canned beans. Increase the cooking time to 20 minutes before adding the kasha.

Apple Pear Strudel Adapted from Norene’s Healthy Kitchen: Eat Your Way to Good Health (Whitecap) Yields 12 servings 4 large baking apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 2 firm ripe pears, peeled, cored, and sliced 1 Tbsp lemon juice (preferably fresh) 1/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 Tbsp whole wheat flour or all-purpose flour 8 sheets phyllo dough 2 to 3 Tbsp canola oil 1/2 cup cornflake crumbs or ground almonds 1 Tbsp granulated sugar mixed with 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, for sprinkling Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, combine the apples, pears, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon, and flour; toss to combine.

Place one sheet of phyllo dough on a dry work surface, with the longer side facing you. Keep the remaining phyllo covered with

plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out. Brush the top side of phyllo lightly with oil, and then sprinkle lightly with crumbs.

Place another sheet of phyllo on top of the first one; brush with oil and sprinkle with crumbs. Repeat until you have 3 layers, then top with a fourth layer of phyllo. Don’t brush the top layer with oil or add the crumbs.

Spoon half of the filling in a line along the bottom edge of the phyllo layers, leaving a 1 1/2-inch border at the bottom and on the sides.

Fold both of the shorter sides inwards and, starting with the bottom, carefully roll up the phyllo. Place the roll, seam-side down, on the prepared baking sheet.

Make a second fruit filling (following the directions above) to make an additional strudel. Brush the tops of the strudels lightly with oil and sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut partially through the top of the dough, but not through the filling, marking 6 slices per strudel.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is golden. Fruit should be tender when strudel is pierced with a knife. At serving time, use a serrated knife to slice completely through.

Norene’s Note: Heat and Eat: The strudel will keep in the refrigerator for up to two days. It can be frozen for up two months, but the dough won’t be as crisp. To reheat the strudel, bake it uncovered at 350°F for 10 to 12 minutes. g

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Wellness Report

By Shira Isenberg

SMART

school

snacks Q A

My eleven-year-old has always been heavy. At his latest annual school checkup, the doctor warned us that if he doesn’t get healthier, he’s headed for diabetes. I didn’t even know kids could get that! With school about to start, I’m getting anxious. He does okay with school lunch, but I don’t know what kind of snacks to send because now everything seems like junk food to me. Help!

Take a deep breath. You’re a good parent. You want to feed your child healthy snacks that will boost his energy at school and help him get to a healthy weight. But you also want to send snacks he will actually eat.

“The key to sending healthy snacks is their staying power,” says dietitian Rivka Breuer, RDN, CDN, who has a private practice in Hewlett, New York. “The yeshivah dual curriculum lends itself to an extremely long day, and skipping snacks can lead a child down the path of extreme hunger where he won’t necessarily make the right choices when food is finally available. A wholesome

snack will help a child stay nourished between lunch and dinnertime.”

What you’re looking for are foods that are nutrient-dense (that is, they contain a fair amount of nutrients for their calorie content) and contain minimal added sugar.

“Opt for snacks that contain protein, fiber and healthy fats for energy, especially if your child participates in after-school activities,” Rivka adds. “And always remember to send a large bottle of water as well.”

Here are some ideas for healthy schoolfriendly snacks: • Cut-up fruits and vegetables: This may be the last thing your son says he wants to

eat, but in my experience, a hungry kid will eat. It is also the rare child who doesn’t like at least one type of fruit or vegetable.

While it’s true that variety is important and, ideally, different types of fruits and vegetables each day would provide a range of nutritional benefits, eating a bunch of the same fruit or veggie is better than eating none! If you can cut them into a cute or funny shape, even better.

• String cheese: Low-cal and high protein, string cheese is very kid-friendly.

If you can find reduced-fat versions, even better. Invest in an insulated lunch bag and a few thin icepacks so you can keep

Shira Isenberg is a registered dietitian and writer in Memphis, Tennessee. She has a master’s degree in public health nutrition from Hunter College in New York.

76 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

the cheese at a safe temperature. Just think ahead if your child is having fleishig for lunch—remind him to eat his cheese for his morning snack!

• Nuts and seeds: With the proliferation of nut-free schools, sending nuts and seeds can prove difficult, so check your school’s policy. It may be just peanut-free so other nuts would be fine, or you may only be able to send seeds, or none at all. Sunflower seeds and pine nuts (which are actually seeds) go over well with kids, as do soy nuts if no nuts or seeds are allowed at all. Just one disclaimer—nuts and seeds are a choking hazard, so ask your pediatrician before sending them with young children.

• Fruit “chips”: Thin, dehydrated rings of apples and other fruits are making the rounds nowadays in little snack bags that look like potato chip bags, which may appeal more to children. (FYI: I’m not talking about fried fruit chips!) Look for ones without added sugar. A similar option: dried fruit. Raisins, for example, are easy and inexpensive, and kids love them; just skip the yogurt-covered ones.

• Fruit leather: There are many delicious natural brands available that are made without added sugar—and they’re still plenty sweet. They also come in cool shapes like braids and twists. Look for bulk packs at warehouse clubs to cut down on price.

• Guacamole or hummus: If you want to send chips, pair them with some type of healthy dip. You can find both guacamole (which offers healthy fat) and hummus (protein) in single-serving containers. (If you’re making your own avocado spread, keep it from turning brown by adding a little lemon juice.) Keep it cool with an icepack too.

• Cereal: Measure a serving of whole grain cereal into a bag or container. Look for brands that have six grams of sugar or less per serving.

• Bars: Look for whole grain options and make sure to check calories and sugar content—just because it looks healthy doesn’t mean that it is. You will have a hard time finding a bar without sugar, but weigh the amount in terms of some of the other benefits like healthy fat and fiber.

• Edamame: Steam or microwave these little pops of protein (they’re actually soybeans) at home, throw on a dash of salt, and then pack them in a small container for your son to eat at school. You may be able to find pre-steamed versions too.

• Popcorn: It may be a carb, but it’s very light and low-cal, and kids love it. One cup

of air-popped popcorn has only about thirty calories! The oil-popped version jumps up to fifty or so calories per cup— still pretty decent, for a quick snack. Since most of us use microwave popcorn, look for lighter versions and single-serve bags that come in around 100 calories. Also, beware of choking—skip popcorn as a snack for young kids.

There, snack list done! Now there are three more things you must do to get your son on a better health trajectory. First,

schedule a follow-up with his doctor right now. Don’t wait until next year’s school appointment to check his progress.

Second, encourage your child to be more active. Physical activity is a major piece of the puzzle when it comes to healthy weight and preventing diabetes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises an hour of physical activity for children and teens every day. Getting him involved in an organized sport or other form of activity Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 77

A

School Snack overhaul Not happy with the cookies served to your preschool daughter at the traditional Shabbos party held on Fridays at school? Don’t want your teenage son to be able to buy soda from the vending machine at yeshivah? Push your child’s school to develop a policy for snack foods and foods sold in school. If there isn’t already a health or nutrition committee in your school, suggest it to your child’s day school’s board and offer to chair it. Invite health leaders from your community to be involved and invested.

Here are some of the topics you’ll want to cover:

Reward policies: Are limits placed on using food as a reward (including pizza or ice cream parties)? Allow classes to earn extra recess or other active parties instead of a food party. Erasers, pencils and other fun, colorful school supplies make for healthier prizes than candy.

Enforcement of policies: Many schools have policies against snack-sharing or using food as a reward, but they are not enforced. If you know these policies exist at your school but are just not being followed, bring the issue up to the administration.

Snacks at recess: Are there rules about what kids can bring from home for snack? Consider instituting one “healthy snack recess,” during which children can only eat a healthy snack. Help parents out by providing suggestions and parameters as to what is considered a healthy snack. With time, consider increasing to other recesses and ultimately the whole school day.

Water fountains: Does the school have them?

Do they need to be upgraded? Consider adding bottle-filling stations so kids can refill their own water bottles.

that he enjoys—maybe swimming, biking, running—can be a great way to ensure his regular physical activity.

Finally, open up the conversation with him about nutrition and why it’s important for him to make smart food choices. Make sure to stress eating for optimal health, not 78 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Vending machines: Does the school have them? If so, does the school need to? If yes, review the options.

Many of the snacks from this list will do fine in a vending machine. Also remove sugared sodas and replace with water and juices.

School fundraisers: Does your school sell chocolate or baked goods to earn money? Can these be exchanged for nonfood items or healthier options?

weight. These days, with the increased emphasis on childhood obesity and nutrition, many frum schools are covering nutrition and health in science, gym or other classes. Find out what your child knows already, pick his brain for questions and work together to find the answers—

School events: At the school barbecue, can you only get hot dogs and potato chips? Is it just cookies and desserts at the PTA meeting? The entire school environment should focus on healthy choices.

whether seeking out books at the library, resources online or asking nutrition experts.

You are on the right path. Many children can grow into their weights in time by making smarter food choices and being more active, and end up reducing their diabetes risk. Good luck!

Books Arab terrorists in 1938. Meir, five years old quandaries were rooted in what he deRabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, Volume Two: 1976-1983 at the time, was traumatized by this trag- scribed as the inherent contradiction in

By Libby Kahane Jerusalem, 2015 • 684 pages Reviewed by Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff

O

ur Sages declared: “The death of a man is felt by none but his wife, and that of a woman only by her husband” (Sanhedrin 22b).

Since Rabbi Meir Kahane’s death, his widow, Libby Kahane, has devoted herself to perpetuating her late husband’s memory and teachings. In her first book, Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, Volume One: 1932-1975, published in 2008, she explored his early years in the States. (See my review in Jewish Action [spring 2009]: 83-86.) Her second volume was just released (she envisions writing three volumes in total), which covers Rabbi Kahane’s early years in Israel, from 1976 until 1983, and the events that would engender his successful campaign for election to the Knesset in 1984. Once again, Libby, who possesses a master’s degree in library science, has produced a volume that is thoroughly documented, with 454 pages of text followed by 182 pages of footnotes.

Early Childhood As Libby describes in her first book, while still a young child, Meir was deeply affected by a tragedy that occurred to his family. On his father’s side, Meir descended from the Kahane family of Safed, who lost five members in a massacre by Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff is rosh yeshivah and professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem. Rabbi Meir Kahane: His Life and Thought, Volume Two: 1976-1983, can be purchased on Amazon.com.

80 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

edy, which influenced his worldview for the rest of his life.

In 1946, shortly after his bar mitzvah, Meir joined Betar. The abbreviated name of Berit Trumpeldor, Betar was the youth group of the more rightist Revisionist Zionist Movement, which acclaimed the saga of Joseph Trumpeldor as a symbol of pioneering and armed defense in the Land of Israel. In 1950 Meir joined the more religious Bnei Akiva youth group where he soon became a mentor and counselor to the younger members. I met Meir when we were both members of Bnei Akiva; he was perhaps the most charismatic leader I encountered throughout my years in the youth group and he was a decisive influence upon me in my formative years.

Meir studied at the Yeshiva of Flatbush and the Brooklyn Talmudic Academy High School (Yeshiva University High School for Boys). He attained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Brooklyn College, a law degree from New York Law School as well as a master’s degree in international relations from New York University. While pursuing his academic endeavors, he continued his rabbinical studies at Brooklyn’s Mirrer Yeshiva.

Despite a conspicuous stuttering problem, Meir honed his oratorical skills and ultimately became a mesmerizing speaker.

When speaking to Jewish audiences, Meir stressed Jewish pride and the idea of never again allowing a Holocaust to happen. The slogan “Never Again” was to become a central theme in his public activities. Rabbi Kahane went on to become a highly public and controversial personality, teacher and author on both the American and Israeli scenes. Tragically, on November 5, 1990, he was assassinated by an Arab gunman in a Manhattan hotel.

Adjusting to Israeli Life In this volume we learn about Rabbi Kahane’s aliyah and adjustment to Israeli life.

Soon after making aliyah, he began to clearly articulate the paradoxes inherent in the contemporary Israeli scene, many of which continue to be the source of conflict in Israeli society to this day. He believed these

Israel’s Declaration of Independence. The state was established to be both Jewish and democratic in character, but little guidance was provided as to how to proceed when these values conflict. To Rabbi Kahane, Jewish survival was far more significant than democratic ideals. Thus, he proposed a solution for the ongoing conflict with Arabs living in Eretz Israel: emigration.

Time and again, Rabbi Kahane would accentuate that he was not advocating harming Arabs but he was rather enabling them to emigrate.

At a 1981 press conference, it was reported that “he lashed out at the Jerusalem Post, [calling it] a newspaper as schizophrenic as the Declaration of Independence, which calls for a Jewish state, a Jewish this and a Jewish that, and then says, ‘All citizens are equal’” (p. 288). That same year, State Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir cautioned Rabbi Kahane regarding possible legal action against him for the ideas expressed in the ads published by Kach, the Israeli political party Rabbi Kahane established. Responding to this at both a press conference and in an article published in the Jewish Press, Rabbi Kahane declared: I said it and will continue to say it: There is a basic contradiction between a Jewish-Zionist state and a Western, democratic one.

The Arabs who threaten, by their very numbers, a Jewish state, must be transferred out of the country. This is Jewish halakha, this is sanity. If this be incitement, I challenge you to take me to court . . . (p. 309) The Kach Party would later be banned from the Knesset for being “racist” and “anti-democratic.” Interestingly, views that are astoundingly similar to those of Rabbi Kahane’s have been expressed by contemporary Knesset members.

Addressing the “Gentilized” Israeli Rabbi Kahane often lamented the lack of Torah knowledge and religious commitment prevalent among Israelis at that time.

He indulged in neologism and described these Israelis as “gentilized,” a term so shocking that it attracted much attention.

In 1981, when he detailed his plans to combat intermarriage between Jews and Arabs,

Rabbi Kahane predicted: I have little doubt that the liberals and gentilized Jews and Hebrews of the world will shake the heavens with their protests— the same heavens that were left untouched by the silence of 33 years of interdating. I have no doubt that the bill will be called “racist” and “a model of South Africa,” by all the Hebrew-speaking gentiles in the Knesset, the media and “intellectual” circles (p. 298).

In 1979, Rabbi Kahane was sentenced to three months in prison for defying the ban on his entry to Hevron. While in Maasiyahu Prison, he was overwhelmed by what he saw. He decried the Jewish inmates’ emphasis on money and the “goodies” it could buy. More shocking to Rabbi Kahane was that most of the Jewish inmates revealed that they envisioned leaving Israel for the freedom and security of the Western world.1 Rabbi Kahane wrote: Most painful of all is the knowledge that 90 percent of the prisoners are Sephardim, from Yemen, Morocco, Iraq, Libya—all the countries where Jews kept the flame of Judaism alive despite the hostility of their Moslem neighbors. They are living proof of the tragic loss of Jewish identity in the Jewish state. They are the product of the secular Zionists who purported to “save” these “primitive Jews who were still living in the Middle Ages.” They succeeded in freeing them from their Jewish values in order to provide them with modern, enlightened values, the values of Dizengoff Street. Now they dream of money . . . .

The secular Zionists created a “new Jew” lacking Judaism. The irony is that this monster who despises Judaism went one step further and threw away Zionism . . . (p. 197).

In truth, the problem of “gentilized” Israelis has become less of an issue with the passage of time. Torah outreach has matured and attuned its approach to the Israeli reality. Due to the influx of olim from Western countries, a much higher percentage of observant Jews are involved in every facet of Israeli life. The high birth rate in the Torah community has also had an impact. Nevertheless, there is still a significant population of Israelis who remain estranged from and ignorant of their Jewish heritage, which inevitably leads to conflict with the Torah-observant community.

Recently, for example, the Israeli government has undertaken initiatives to promote the integration of Chareidim into the Israeli workforce and society. Many Chareidim have expressed a desire to integrate pro-

fessionally and in other ways. Thus, the IDF has created special units to accommodate the needs of the Chareidi soliders and enable them to feel comfortable. Yet even while this process of integration is in its infancy, key leaders of the military establishment have launched an initiative to attempt to outlaw beards in the IDF. The Sephardic Dilemma As Rabbi Kahane deepened his understanding of the Israeli reality, he recognized the potential support he could gain from the Sephardic populace. This took place, of course, before the creation of Shas, the Sephardic political party. The younger Sephardic generation was seeking its place on the Israeli scene. A conspicuous Sephardic element was desirous of a strong and articulate leader.

Rabbi Kahane constantly stressed the theme of the Sephardic dilemma and the difficult predicament facing this population. At a 1983 fundraising dinner in Los Angeles, he thus described the Peace Meir, five years old at the time, was traumatized by this tragedy, which influenced his worldview for the rest of his life.

Now adherents and their attitudes towards Sephardim: Seven hundred thousand Sephardic Jews came into the land of Israel as good Jews, warm Jews, religious Jews, real Zionists. And the ideological forefathers of Peace Now took these young Jews and put them into kibbutzim where they lost every shred of Judaism and instead were given the life of Dizengoff Street . . . . Who made them? Who gave them the values of money and money and money, if not these people . . . (p. 416).

Rabbi Kahane unsuccessfully ran for the Knesset in 1973, in 1977 and again in 1981.

In 1984, his Kach Party received sufficient votes to grant it a single seat in the Knesset.

Rabbi Kahane had finally achieved the status of a parliamentarian. A good deal of his support came from the Sephardic sector.

Critiquing American Torah Jewry Once an Israeli resident, Rabbi Kahane intensified his criticisms of the American Torah community. He was particularly appalled by its seeming indifference toward aliyah. In 1976, when Orthodox Jews joined in the celebration of the American bicentennial, he published an article in the Jew-

ish Press, where he denounced the “sudden love affair with the bicentennial [celebration of the United States] by yeshivas, rabbis and Jewish institutions.” He stressed that aliyah to Israel should be their priority, and singled out the German-Jewish community in Washington Heights, since he felt this Orthodox enclave from Frankfurt was typical of American Orthodoxy. Rabbi Kahane wrote: Torah in America. Comfortable, satisfied, integrated. Eretz Yisrael is a nice place to visit; in which to study for a year; for which to demonstrate or give an activist sermon. But to live? There is only one place for the American Torah Jew. “Our country.” Two hundred years old and ours. And the clock ticks on and the fury prepares to pour out (p. 47).

When Dr. Raphael Moller, the greatgrandson of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, vigorously protested Rabbi Kahane’s position in a letter, Rabbi Kahane stated: I love the Jews of Washington Heights as I do all other Jews. I love them so much that I promise them that I will give them no rest.

I see a catastrophe coming and I do not wish to see the children of a generation that died because it could not see, follow in the paths of their fathers. We Jews have a destiny—to climb the mountain of Zion. Let us escape today from Washington Depths and reach Zion’s Heights (p. 47).

Rabbi Kahane could be sharp-tongued in both speech and in print. He remained a prolific writer despite all the public clamor and tumult that typified his life.

Indeed, reading his writings and summaries of his speeches, a Religious Zionist will essentially agree with most of his viewpoints and criticisms. The issues he raises are real and intrinsic to the quests of the Torah Jew in the contemporary world. The more arduous challenge is to engender solutions which are attainable and practical. At times, he espoused activities that were outside the law. In this book, Libby documents her husband’s administrative detention and imprisonments in Israel as a result of such ventures. Much of the religious establishment opposed Rabbi Kahane due to this controversial aspect of his approach.

Rabbi Kahane’s descriptions of the ongoing clash of Judaism and democracy in Israel may prove enlightening. Perhaps it will engender a course of action which will prove more constructive and successful.

With inspiring education and the shift in the population and its values, major changes Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 81

have transpired on the Israeli public scene since Rabbi Kahane’s days. One of the most powerful examples of this is evident from Rabbi Kahane’s own family. In 2014 a volume was published about the life of Rabbi Yissachar Meir (1927-2010), the founder and head of Yeshivat HaNegev; in it, Rabbi Kahane is quoted as advising a student in 1970 who desired to leave for the army: “You will never be able to advance in the Army as you are religious and scrupulous in your observance” (p. 206).

Presently, a nephew of Rabbi Kahane, the son of Rabbi Nachman Kahana, is a brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces. He is one of many senior officers whose heads are graced by kippot.

With Torah education acculturated into the contemporary Israeli scene and the intensive Jewish commitment of the present-day olim, the concepts of Torah and Zionism harmonize. Judaism and democracy gradually interlock in mutual understanding and respect.

This volume is a laudable continuation of Libby’s first volume about her husband’s early life. It is both scholarly and sensitive to the protagonist and his conflicts. This book is a must-read for all who knew and admired Rabbi Kahane. g Note 1. The recent “Milky Protest” in Israel reminded me of Rabbi Kahane’s outcries against the Sabras who seek to improve their future elsewhere. Many Israelis declared that it was desirable to reside in Berlin where the “milky pudding” was cheaper than in Tel Aviv. The lead article in Contact, published by the Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, in the winter 2016 issue was entitled, “From Jerusalem to Berlin: The Israeli Love Affair with the German Capital.”

The article describes Israelis who had emigrated to Berlin.

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When God is Near: On the High Holidays

By Rabbi Yehuda Amital Adapted and Edited by Rabbi Yoel Amital, Translated by Karen Fish Yeshivat Har Etzion/Maggid Books Jerusalem, 2015 • 306 pages Reviewed by Ari Kahn

W

hen reading a book written by someone you know, and most especially books written by one’s own teacher or mentor, one can often hear his or her voice as one reads the printed words, and is transported back to the classroom or beit midrash. Reading When God Is Near: On the High Holidays by Rav Yehuda Amital, zt”l, the founder and rosh yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Etzion for four decades, provides such an experience for me.

Rav Amital spoke and taught almost exclusively in Hebrew, and during the time I spent at Yeshivat Har Etzion I don’t believe I ever heard him speak any other language.

Nonetheless, despite the barriers of time, place and translation, while reading this volume of Rav Amital’s sichot (talks), I was able to hear his voice; not only the teaching voice Rav Amital used in the study hall, but his voice as shaliach tzibbur, leading his beloved yeshivah in prayer. In a certain sense, the latter may be the more important voice, for Rav Amital was, in the broadest sense of the term, a shaliach tzibbur, and it was this same role, this calling and sense of responsibility, that he strove to pass on to his students and followers.

While Rav Amital’s name may be familiar to the English-speaking public the world over, I suspect that his Torah is not Rabbi Ari Kahn is director of Foreign Student Programs at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, where he also is a senior lecturer in Jewish studies.

He is also a senior educator at MATAN. A renowned speaker, Rabbi Kahn has lectured worldwide and has authored many articles on the weekly parashah and holidays, as well as Echoes of Eden, a five-volume series on Chumash published by OU Press and Gefen Publishing.

as well known; perhaps this is one of the many unfortunate byproducts of the divide between Religious Zionism and its close relative in the Diaspora, Modern Orthodoxy. While these two communities face different challenges, the points of similarity between them make the work under discussion (and others like it) all the more important to the observant English-speaking community outside the Land of Israel.

Admittedly, few American roshei yeshivah will dedicate a key lecture or lesson to those who are not present in the room, as Rav Amital did regarding talmidim who were absent due to active military service. However, the underlying orientation, the educational message, the challenge presented

by Rav Amital’s sichot, should speak to every rosh yeshivah and student: to raise students who serve the larger community and are engaged with the world beyond the parochial confines of the beit midrash.

When God Is Near is comprised of lecture notes and transcriptions of short pre-selichot, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur talks that Rav Amital delivered at Yeshivat Har Etzion. Each of these sichot shimmers with the holiness of the Days of Awe, while at the same time giving the reader a taste of Rav Amital’s personal Torah. As a whole, this book is about responsibility. It is about personal greatness. Its foci are man, God and change. At various junctures, the reader may get the sense that Rav Amital was addressing himself, or perhaps giving us a glimpse into his inner world. Rav Amital’s greatness as a teacher is apparent. In each sichah he attempts not merely to impart information, but to mold and inspire his students and to pass on to them his own passion for Torat Yisrael, Am Yisrael and Eretz Yisrael.

Rav Amital proves to be a sensitive reader of texts, whether the text in question is Biblical, rabbinic or liturgical—but that is only the point of departure for many of these sichot. His vivid imagination and ability to paint a picture for his audience are, quite literally, inspiring. Rav Amital explains the basis for these flights of imaginative fancy: in The Kuzari, Rabbi Yehuda Halevi encourages us to visualize the significant events of Jewish history, including the Revelation at Sinai and Akeidat Yitzchak (p. 171). Rav Amital rises brilliantly to this challenge, and throughout When God Is Near, he shares with us what he sees: deliberations between Biblical characters, scenes that he imagines taking place in Heaven and so much more. Similarly, his

insights are often illustrated with scenes from his own past—the Europe of his childhood or the war years, his experiences as a lone survivor and his participation in the great drama of building a new country in a very old land.

In the book, the concept of teshuvah (repentance) is transformed from an individual concern into an issue of community responsibility. Unlike those who take great pride in the unprecedented numbers of Jews currently studying Torah, Rav Amital laments the unprecedented number of Jews who are distanced from Torah or who have rejected Torah outright. Despite having been born into a Chassidic Hungarian-Jewish family, Rav Amital fell under the influence of Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook from a very early age; remarkably, Rav Amital managed to acquire and hold on to Rav Kook’s writings throughout his years in Nazi labor camps. Rav Kook’s concept of teshuvah as a national goal, and not merely as a personal quest, was a major influence

We must take responsibility for the world in which we live, and universal concerns such as the eroding ozone layer and pollution are raised as well. God assured us that He would not destroy the world with a second flood, but we were not guaranteed that the world will not be destroyed by our own greed, carelessness or stupidity. on Rav Amital, who would not allow himself to be satisfied with life ensconced in his yeshivah when secularism was ravaging the Jewish community just beyond the walls of the beit midrash.

In this context, Rav Amital draws upon a daring teaching of the Chassidic master Rabbi Tzadok HaKohen of Lublin: if a person’s self-identification or identification by others is Jewish, this is sufficient reason to allow their conversion—even if his or her acceptance of mitzvot is lacking (p. 214).

The collective Nation of Israel includes all those “to whom the name Israel is applied,” and the holiness of the Jewish People falls equally on those for whom the sobriquet “Jew” is their only connection to Judaism.

Rav Amital stressed that the purifying power of Yom Kippur is available to these Jews as well, even though their knowledge and practice may be limited when compared to that of the yeshivah student.

Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 83

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Rav Amital’s message is clear: the privileged and entitled yeshivah student should feel a deep sense of responsibility for the larger community, and never feel superior to other Jews simply because circumstances provided him with a better Jewish education. Our introspection on Yom Kippur, then, must encompass the collective, with all its disparate elements, and we must pause and consider whether or not we have met our responsibility to the Nation of Israel. Additionally, we are called upon to take stock of our behavior as citizens of the even-larger collective: human beings. We must take responsibility for the world in which we live, and universal concerns such as the eroding ozone layer and pollution are raised as well. God assured us that He would not destroy the world with a second flood, but we were not guaranteed that the world will not be destroyed by our own greed, carelessness or stupidity (p. 149).

For the most part, the chapters of When God Is Near are undated, an unfortunate editorial oversight in a work so firmly rooted in the author’s personal vision. For example, the many discussions of Akeidat Yitzchak leave the reader in need of a chronological anchor. Rav Amital wonders aloud about Avraham’s emotions, thoughts and words as he made his way toward the holy mountain, his beloved son at his side. What personal akeidah of the author, we wonder, haunts each of these sichot? Is it the loss of Rav Amital’s entire extended family or of European Jewry as a whole? Is it the loss of his beloved students, killed while heroically defending the Land of Israel and its people that colors his analysis of the Akeidah? In one particular essay, Rav Amital contrasts the willingness of the father to sacrifice his son and the willingness of the son to be sacrificed with the “shaheed” (suicide terrorist). He reports searching through midrashic literature, to no avail; he could not find even one midrash in which either Avraham or Yitzchak are assured of a share in the World to Come after the Akeidah. Rav Amital goes on to express theological disappointment with those who believe in an abstract, non-corporeal God on the one hand, but whose vision of Heaven is obsessively tangible, “a place where they can realize their wildest and ugliest fantasies” (p. 157). Had this essay been placed in historical or political context, the message would have been far more poignant.

I admit that I am unaccustomed to reading Rav Amital’s words in English (although this is not the first volume of his teachings that has been translated). At times the translation in When God Is Near is a bit formal. Often, a phrase or verse that is used as the starting point for an essay would be more easily understood in the original Hebrew. Though there are occasional transliterations, they are too few and far between. In fact, it would have been far more helpful to quote Biblical verses and quotations from the liturgy in Hebrew; even for the average English-speaker, these basic texts are far more familiar in the original.

Despite these minor complaints, this is an important book.

Rav Amital was a great teacher and the leader of a large and important community. He charged his students to take responsibility. He taught them to be independent, he groomed them to lead and he called upon them to be holy and to sanctify God’s Name—and never to desecrate it. Unfortunately, Rav Amital’s voice is largely unheard in many of the communities that have the most to gain from his teachings. Those who are unfamiliar with his work would do well to learn his Torah, hear and heed his unique voice and accept his challenge: dare to be great. g

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Torah and Western Thought: Intellectual Portraits of Orthodoxy and Modernity

Edited by Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik, Dr. Stuart W. Halpern, and Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier Maggid Books/YU New York, 2016 • 346 pages Reviewed by Gil S. Perl

book is about. And, as such, it makes a compelling case for the notion that Modern Orthodoxy ought not to be about people—people who live in a certain place, dress a certain way, affiliate with certain institutions—but about a set of ideas that animate the way in which a segment of the Jewish community view their relationship with God, His Torah and His creations.

That message is driven home by the fact that, with the exception perhaps of Rabbi Norman Lamm and Rabbi Lichten-

at Yeshiva University (YU), focuses on the limits of human knowledge as expressed in the work of Rav Kook. From this deeply rooted mystical conviction emerges both a critical lesson in intellectual humility as well as a concomitant approach toward those with whom we disagree. Dr. Rynhold describes Rav Kook’s position as follows: Our understanding will always remain partial. As such, even when we are convinced by the truth of our particular perspective, we still need to respect other

Though the editors seem bent on avoiding the term “Modern Orthodoxy” either in the title or anywhere else in the front matter, that is precisely what this book is about.

T

hough insightful, enlightening and at times inspiring, the recently published volume from Maggid Books and Yeshiva University’s Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought isn’t quite what it’s billed to be.

From the title one might expect a sustained look at the explicit or implicit conversation between Torah texts on the one hand, and their corollaries in the great books of the West on the other, as mediated by luminaries of twentieth-century Orthodoxy. While each of the ten chronologically ordered “intellectual portraits of Orthodoxy and modernity” does indeed profile a significant Torah thinker who in some way straddled the worlds of Orthodoxy and modernity, some of the portraits present very little of the subject’s Torah and—with the exception of the pieces on Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik and Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein—there is scant focus on what is commonly referred to as Western thought.

The real value of this volume, though, lies not in any individual essay, but in the subtle message delivered by the collection as a whole. Though the editors seem bent on avoiding the term “Modern Orthodoxy” either in the title or anywhere else in the front matter, that is precisely what this Rabbi Gil S. Perl is the head of school at Kohelet Yeshiva High School in Merion Station, Pennsylvania and chief academic officer of the Kohelet Foundation.

86 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

stein,1 none of the thinkers profiled in this volume would have identified themselves as Modern Orthodox. Yet, what emerges from these essays amounts to an ambitious and robust platform for Modern Orthodoxy. It is a set of ideas that has the power to advance the communal conversation well beyond the notions of “synthesis” and “Torah U’Madda” that have defined Modern Orthodoxy since the middle of the twentieth century, and toward a broader program of sophisticated, sensitive and engaged Modern Orthodoxy for the twenty-first century and beyond.

Central to this program is the development of a Torah perspective on “otherness.” For contemporary Modern Orthodoxy there is perhaps no greater challenge, and no greater opportunity, than navigating the relationship between Jew and “other.” Located as it is in the nexus between the worlds of tradition and contemporary society, Modern Orthodoxy is often distinguished by its openness to engaging with those outside of their proverbial four cubits. Doing so in a way that is restrained yet respectful, open-minded yet unwaveringly faithful, is no easy feat. It is not surprising, therefore, that the single most salient theme running through the essays in this volume is the relationship between Orthodox Jews and the “other”—be they secular Jews, adherents of other faiths, or society as a whole.

In the volume’s first essay, Dr. Daniel Rynhold, who teaches Jewish philosophy

views—not merely for the pragmatic reason that we are currently powerless to do otherwise, but because there is an extent to which they are similarly expressions of an underlying divine reality. There is truth contained within the opposing views, and it is imperative that we engage with them in order to uncover that truth and improve our grasp on our own truths (pp. 33-34).

The most significant “other” in the writings of Rav Kook were secular Jews living in the Land of Israel. Rabbi Dr. Itamar Warhaftig, professor of Jewish law at Bar-Ilan University, notes that navigating this tenuous relationship between the Orthodox rabbinate and the secular inhabitants of the nascent State of Israel was central to the halachic writings of Rabbi Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog as well. Prior to assuming the mantle of Israel’s Ashkenazic chief rabbi from Rav Kook in 1936, Rabbi Herzog, who grew up in England and was educated at the Sorbonne and the University of London, served as chief rabbi of Ireland for fourteen years. He was therefore acutely aware of the need for contemporary Orthodoxy to articulate sensitive positions vis-a-vis the non-Jewish “other” as well.

In an essay treating both Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik and his brother Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik, Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveichik points out that this need was similarly felt by these two giants of American Orthodoxy. Thus, while the Rav’s contribution to Modern Orthodoxy

is well documented, in this volume Rabbi Meir Soloveichik, rabbi at Congregation Shearith Israel in New York and director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western thought at YU, highlights the Rav’s somewhat more neglected guidance regarding interfaith engagement and the idea of religious liberty.

For the author of “Confrontation,” traditional Jews and Christians have deep disagreements, but they agree on their disagreement, and in this they find their ultimate commonality. To put it in another way, even as Jews and Christians are divided as to what exactly is the religious truth, it is their old-fashioned belief in the very notion of truth that unites them (p. 94).

Much as the Rav’s work outlines a framework for intellectual engagement with the non-Jewish world, the lesserknown work of Rabbi Ahron Soloveichik articulates an ethical and halachic framework for practical engagement with adherents of other faiths. In doing so, Rav Ahron is unequivocal in asserting a radically expansive view of the obligations of a Jew toward a non-Jew, while simultaneously accounting for the qualitatively different nature of the obligations of Jews toward each other: Jewish ethics encompasses two complementary sources of obligation: specific laws and general virtues. The former, such as hashavat aveda, are limited to Jews, whereas all humanity is included in the more universal moral virtues that lie at the core of the Torah . . . . The laws obligating Jews toward one another serve not to exclude ethical obligations to gentiles; on the contrary, they build upon ethical obligations by adding laws that establish all Jews as covenantal brothers and sisters (pp. 101, 103).

The treatment of the “other” returns once more in Rabbi Shalom Carmy and Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier’s rather dense treatment of Rabbi Lichtenstein’s view of religious humanism. Though first and foremost an exercise in self-actualization and growth, Rabbi Carmy, who teaches Jewish philosophy and Bible at YU and Rabbi Zuckier, co-director of OU-JLIC on the Yale University campus, note that Rabbi Lichtenstein’s approach has important implications for a Jew’s interpersonal relationships as well: Religious humanism is about the appreciation and cherishing of the human being. Our current educational challenge is not solely the blight of intellectual

narrowness and the ensuing deficiency in our understanding of ourselves and others.

We are also called upon to counter the tendency to derogate a human being, and within Orthodox society, the tendency to deprecate outsiders, non-Jews, or hilonim (secular Jews), to make light of their contributions and dignity, and to disparage those aspects of human nature and destiny that we share volens nolens with the outside world (p. 310).

Whereas Rabbi Lichtenstein’s view of religious humanism seeks to elevate rather than deprecate the intrinsic value of the individual human “other,” Rabbi Lord Immanuel Jakobovits’s view of universally relevant ethical Judaism seeks to elevate humanity as a whole. Following in the footsteps of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch before him, and laying the groundwork for Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who succeeded him as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth, Rabbi Jakobovits, who served in that position from 1966 until 1991, sees post-Enlightenment, post-Emancipation Western society as providing an unprecedented opportunity for Jews to realize their call to be a “light unto the nations.”

Physician and ethicist Dr. Alan Jotkowitz notes that much of Rabbi Jakobovits’s literary output focuses on the area of Jewish medical ethics. This is part of a much larger project to demonstrate both to the Jewish community and to the non-Jewish community that Jewish texts and traditions have something highly valuable to

quandaries as the permissibility of abortion, euthanasia, and artificial reproduction (p. 146).

Seeing Torah as a gift intended to be shared with the wider world also figures into Rabbi Dr. David Shatz’s treatment of Rabbi Lamm’s nuanced understanding of the role of Torah in the concept of “Torah U’Madda.” Thus Dr. Shatz, who teaches philosophy at YU, writes that “Torah” does not only reflect an inward-facing pursuit but “also has something to say to the world, and one of the principal benefits of a secular education is the acquisition of a language that can articulate this message” (p. 225).

In addition to relating to the “other,” the volume’s second leitmotif is the broadening of classical definitions of talmud Torah. Central to that project for Modern Orthodoxy is the encouragement of women to seek out opportunities for advancement in the world of learning and teaching Torah. Though Professor Nechama Leibowitz was undoubtedly an unassuming pioneer in this regard, her contribution to Modern Orthodoxy extends well beyond issues of gender. Her influence was instrumental in the reemergence of Tanach as an area worthy of sophisticated study by Torah-loving Jews of both genders—an agenda that has been taken up with particular gusto in the Modern Orthodox and Dati Leumi communities. Perhaps even more importantly, Professor Leibowitz’s example demonstrates that serious

Professor Nechama Leibowitz’s . . . influence was instrumental in the re-emergence of Tanach as an area worthy of sophisticated study by Torah-loving Jews of both genders—an agenda that has been taken up with particular gusto in the Modern Orthodox and Dati Leumi communities. contribute to “others” in the arena of values and moral sensibility: From the beginning of his illustrious career, he passionately argued for the universality of Jewish morality. Jewish ethics based on the revealed work of God as expressed in the halakhah should guide not only Jews, but all of humanity as it faces such difficult modern moral

engagement with the intellectual currents of contemporary society need not result in wholesale accommodation or assimilation. Rather, the perspectives and positions of those outside our tradition can be used as the impetus necessary to advance and enhance a traditional understanding as well. As Yael Unterman, author of Nehama Leibowitz: Teacher and Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 87

Bible Scholar, writes: Prof. Leibowitz’s revolution reintroduced the old, so to speak, while simultaneously updating it. Her action was somewhat akin, if we may draw an analogy, to restoring an old photograph or transferring a filing system from paper to a computer. She went much further than simply defending the Tanakh from Bible critics.

She rehabilitated it from its neglected status, analyzed it methodically, pinpointed gems of commentary, and explained and reworded them (p. 121).

While Professor Leibowitz helped revitalize the study of Tanach, Rabbi Dr. Carmi Horowitz, professor of Jewish thought and intellectual history at Michlalah Yerushalayim, notes that the Harvard scholar Professor Isadore Twersky advocated broadening the canon of Torah study even further: Professor Twersky held a very broad view of Judaism with a profound understanding of the importance not only of halakhah (in all of its various literary forms: talmudic texts, codes of law, responsa, and halakhic essays), but of all other aspects of Jewish cultural creativity including philosophy, Kabbala, biblical and aggadic exegesis, sermons, ethical works, poetry, linguistics, interreligious polemics and travelogues (p. 266).

The book . . . calls for a Modern Orthodoxy that actively seeks opportunities to share the gift of authentic Torah learning and authentic Torah living for the betterment of society and for the elevation of humanity at large.

In fact, for Professor Twersky, talmud Torah not only encompassed the study of a wide variety of texts, but had room for multiple methodologies as well—even those that were not necessarily indigenous to the beit midrash. Thus Dr. Horowitz writes, “there was a seamless connection in his eyes between his scholarly endeavors and the religious obligation to study Torah” (p. 259).

In the thought of Rabbi Yehuda Amital, the late rosh yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Etzion, this call for diversification and personalization in the study of Torah reaches a crescendo. As described by Rabbi Reuven Ziegler, director of research and archives at the Toras HoRav Foundation and Dr. Yehudah Mirsky, who teaches Judaic studies at Brandeis University, Rabbi Amital was known for his insatiable appetite for life and his unshakeable resolve to experience it all through the lens of Torah: Torah, he insisted, is not meant to cut one off from life and desensitize a person to his historical and social surroundings, but rather to guide him in engaging his milieu and uplifting it. It can be said that not only did he advocate “hesder lekhatehilla”—the union of army and yeshiva study not as a concession, but as the preferable option from the start—he also advocated “life lekhatehilla” and engagement of the world by the student of the Torah (p. 189).

This more expansive view of engagement with the world 88 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

also means that the options for contemporary Orthodox Jews to find their own personal points of connection ought to be more numerous and more varied: Rav Amital made clear to his students that he was there to challenge and be challenged, that he expected his students to forge their own religious paths, and that he had no intention of creating “little Amitals.” He invited discussion, dissent, and independent thought decrying the frequently authoritarian spirituality of the yeshiva world and declaring to his students that he was “not a hasidic rebbe” [who] would make their decisions for them (p. 190).

Seen holistically, a profound program begins to unfold from the pages of this volume. It calls for a Modern Orthodoxy that celebrates its unique aptitude for honest, dignified and mutually enriching engagement of the “other.” It calls for a Modern Orthodoxy fed by a wellspring of sophisticated talmud Torah in which a gender-blind community of teachers and learners immerse themselves in a wide variety of texts and a range of methodologies, both for the purpose of blazing new paths and for the purposes of creating personal space. And it calls for a Modern Orthodoxy that actively seeks opportunities to share the gift of authentic Torah learning and authentic Torah living for the betterment of society and for the elevation of humanity at large. g Note 1. Rabbis Carmy and Zuckier note that “unlike the Rav,” Rabbi Lichtenstein “has, at times, accepted the [Modern Orthodox] label” (p. 302).

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Fall 5777/2016 5777/2016 JEWISH JEWISH ACTION ACTION II 89 89 Fall

Reviews in Brief

By Gil Student

Values Investing: An Omaha Rabbi Learns Torah from Warren Buffett

By Jonathan Gross 2016 • 161 pages

Finance, as an industry, has gained a reputation as a ruthless, amoral field where the only rule is to make money and the only law is to not get caught breaking the law. Every generalization like that has some truth to it, but paints with an exceedingly broad brush. One notable exception in finance is Warren Buffett, perhaps the most successful investor alive today. Buffett has become famous not only for his success but also for his wholesome investment and life advice. In interviews and his annual shareholder letter, Buffett offers old-fashioned, common-sense guidance.

For many years, Rabbi Jonathan Gross served as the Orthodox rabbi in Omaha, Nebraska, where Buffett lives. Their paths crossed when Rabbi Gross started a charity fundraiser that involved selling his chametz to Warren Buffett. Like many others, Rabbi Gross takes Buffett’s investment advice to heart as important life lessons. In this book, he summarizes these ideas and shows their correlations in Torah. In many ways, these lessons are obvious. But it is precisely these obvious moral lessons that we tend to forget as we get caught up in the complications of life.

Values Investing is a Mesillat Yesharim for the free-market era. Buffett and Rabbi Gross remind us of the importance of honesty, humility and treating every person with respect. This charming book can change your life without teaching you something you did not already know. Rather, it reinforces the important lessons we learned as children and forgot as we rushed into adulthood. The master investor, through his rabbi friend, teaches us to go back to the basics of morality and ethics.

The Encyclopedia of Jewish Values

By Nachum Amsel Urim Publications Jerusalem, 2015 • 592 pages

Rabbi Dr. Nachum Amsel writes in his introduction that the term “encyclopedia” in the title is “a bit presumptuous.”

Even though this is the first of a projected four-volume series, the task of encompassing the entirety of Jewish thought in any encyclopedia seems impossible. The Torah is described as being “longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Indeed, each of the volume’s

thirty-nine essays lacks a systematic and unified style, perhaps because the topics are so expansive. Yet the essays contain so much material, rich in depth and breadth, full of insight and contemporary relevance, that we can forgive the title. This book might not be an encyclopedia but it is a gold mine of Jewish values. Masterfully combining Biblical, legal and philosophical texts, Rabbi Amsel, director of education at the Destiny Foundation, an educational media foundation, gives each topic extensive treatment.

Each essay seems like a well-organized, multi-hour lecture on the topic (rabbis and teachers take note!).

Topics range from birthdays to gun control to homosexuality to jealousy to differences between man and animal. On the one hand, the connection among topics eludes the reader. On the other hand, the book’s organization seems almost irrelevant because each essay is a self-contained unit. Rabbi Amsel writes in clear English, intending this work for both the beginner and the expert.

He provides not only sources but thoughtful connections, as he weaves a narrative from the broad spectrum of texts he cites. What does Judaism have to say about alternative medicine? Before approaching halachic texts, Rabbi Amsel asks a theological question: if all healing comes from God, why should it matter whether a medical treatment is conventional or alternative? From this issue, he proceeds seamlessly to the halachic aspects of the question, such as a nineteenth-century responsum forbidding a Jew from sending a telegram on Shabbat to a tzaddik asking him to pray for a sick person. Conventional medicine for a deathly ill patient overrides Shabbat, but not alternative methods like a tzaddik’s prayer.

Rabbi Amsel has a knack for finding interesting, relevant topics. This book is a vast resource of expert Jewish analysis on timely subjects.

We’re Almost There: Living With Patience, Perseverance and Purpose

By Dovid M. Cohen Mosaica Press Los Angeles, 2016 • 234 pages

Rabbi Dovid Cohen is too young to write his memoirs. His book We Are Almost There: Living With Patience, Perseverance and Purpose uses reflections on his own life as a mirror to the challenges facing American Orthodox Jews today. He was a successful lawyer but, sadly, had trouble finding his match. Life as a single professional in New York comes with a unique set of doubts and fears. In

Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Board.

90 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

a whirlwind story that features a pushy Israeli taxi driver, Rabbi Cohen finally finds his bashert. Then he and his wife have a special needs child, a challenge with its own joys and fears as they adjust their life to help their wonderful child succeed. Through his bachelorhood, marriage and fatherhood, along with a career change from law to the rabbinate, Rabbi Cohen, who currently serves as OU regional director of synagogues for Manhattan, Bronx, Westchester and Connecticut as well as director of community outreach for Yachad, offers a window into his emotions.

This is a very personal story, not just biographical but psychological and emotional—including the thoughts and feelings that accompany, and sometimes overwhelm, the author throughout his journey. Life is about relationships. When Rabbi Cohen is faced with a new challenge, such as speaking about a school shooting, he thinks about the emotions of his audience and relates to their concerns. As a rabbi in Manhattan, he perceives quite a bit of affluence and concern with status.

But he also sees the kindness and charity, the honest desire to be good people. Rabbi Cohen’s messages throughout the book relate to the personal growth and experiences that we all encounter, and would do well to think about in more depth.

context of the questions and the sequence of precedent and further development. He teaches the history of halachah without historicism, focusing on the facts of the case and the underlying theoretical concepts of the decision rather than the social, economic and political pressures on which historians sometimes dwell. This is the evolution of halachah as traditionally understood, as great scholars reach groundbreaking conclusions and then later generations build on those decisions, all with an aim at reaching the Divine truth of Torah.

In this book, a student—Yaakov Weinstein—compiled series of lectures on three very difficult topics: the classic agunah, mamzerut (illegitimate children) and artificial insemination.

With great clarity of language and thought, this book opens up the world of the halachic decisor. Readers gain access to the deliberations on life-altering legal decisions, the struggle to ascertain the facts and wrestle with ancient texts in order to reach a humane but intellectually honest conclusion. One can only leave this book with appreciation for the genius and sensitivity of the great halachists of the ages, and the great burden placed on their shoulders. g

Rakafot Aharon, Volume 3: In Response to Life—The Classic Agunah, Mamzerut, Artificial Insemination

By Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff Shvut Ami Jerusalem, 2016 • 370 pages

(Disclosure: My family contributed a modest dedication for the publication of this book in memory of my wife’s grandparents.)

Jewish law has never been successfully codified, despite the valiant attempts that still resonate centuries after their composition. While many laws are straightforward, many more defy simple characterization. The details of each situation are so complex and the multitude of competing concerns so numerous, that no standard formulation will suffice for any specific case. The greatest scholars often will disagree exactly how to combine the different texts and issues into a conclusion. That is the beauty of the living Torah, often obscured from popular sight in thick volumes of responsa.

For nearly forty years, Rabbi Dr. Aharon Rakeffet-Rothkoff has been teaching classes at Yeshiva University’s Gruss Kollel in Jerusalem on responsa literature. Rabbi Rakeffet’s lectures began circulating via cassette tapes in a different century and are now wildly popular on the Internet, gaining followers within and far outside his Yeshiva University orbit. A trained historian and a longtime teacher of advanced rabbinical students, Rabbi Rakeffet does not merely share the different views on a complex halachic topic. He paints a verbal picture, describing the personalities of the rabbis involved, the historical Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 91

Legal-Ease

By Ari Z. Zivotofsky

What’s the Truth About . . .

the Age to Study Kabbalah Misconception: One may not study kabbalah before reaching age forty.

Fact: The appropriate time to commence study of the esoteric dimension of Torah is largely determined by one’s level of Torah knowledge and spiritual development, not by one’s age.

Background:1 Torah sources provide various suggestions regarding how and when one should go about studying various Torah matters. For example, the Mishnah (Avot 5:21) says that at age five one should begin the study of Scripture,2 at ten, Mishnah, at fifteen, Talmud, et cetera; it concludes by stating that at age forty one acquires binah (understanding).

The Mishnah does not elaborate, but other sources reserve certain areas of study for those aged forty and above. For example, the Talmud (Sotah 22b) states that one should not render halachic decisions until “forty years,”3 and that is the accepted halachah (Rema, YD 242:31).4 Various sources seem to ascribe significance to the age of forty. The Talmud (Avodah Zarah 5b) records in the name of Rabbah that one does not truly understand his teacher until after forty years. Rambam says that Avraham recognized God at age forty (Hilchot Avodat Kochavim 1:3). Rabbi Elazar Fleckeles (1754-1826; Teshuvah Me’ahavah 3:375 [50a]), in commenting on the Rema’s ruling, quotes a proclamation that was issued in all the shuls of Prague in 1786 under the instruction of the chief rabbi, the Noda B’Yehudah, banning the publication of commentaries on Talmud or halachah written by anyone under the age of forty.5 Starting from the Mishnaic period and on, other criteria have been mentioned with regard to the study of philosophy and the esoteric dimension of the Torah, what today would be termed kabbalah. The Mishnah (Chagigah 11b) limits the number

of individuals who may study Ma’aseh Bereishit, the account of Creation, and Ma’aseh Merkavah, Ezekiel’s account of the Divine chariot,6 as a group—topics that might be considered kabbalah. Ironically, the Talmud spends the next four pages discussing these very topics. In the course of this discussion, an age requirement is alluded to. Rebbi Yochanan suggests that Rebbi Elazar should teach him Ma’aseh Merkavah (Chagigah 13a); Rebbi Elazar responds that he is not old enough to teach it. Rabbeinu Chananel explains that the gemara means that Rebbi Elazar was not yet fifty years old.

The Talmud (Kiddushin 71a) also limits who may be taught the forty-two-letter esoteric Name of God. Rav warns that it should only be taught to a person who is modest, humble, is not easily angered, does not get drunk and does not hold a grudge; additionally, he must be at “half his years,” understood by Rashi in Sanhedrin to mean thirty-five years old.

As part of the Talmudic discussion (Chagigah 14b; cf. Tosefta, Chagigah 2:3) about learning cryptic topics, the danger of studying beyond one’s spiritual level is highlighted by the incident of “four who entered the Pardes [lit. Orchard],” that is, delved into esoteric material.7 Of the four great scholars, Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher (Elisha ben Avuyah) and Rabbi Akiva who studied this material, only Rabbi Akiva emerged unscathed. Ben Azzai died; Ben Zoma was “injured,” i.e., lost his mind (in other versions of the gemara, the fates of these two are switched) and Acher “chopped down saplings in the orchard,” i.e., confused his beliefs.

The precise meaning of Pardes is not clear. Rambam writes that Pardes refers to Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah, topics that he includes in the first four chapters of Yesodei HaTorah

Rabbi Dr. Ari Zivotofsky is on the faculty of the Brain Science Program at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

92 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

(physics and meta-physics) (Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 2:11, 4:10, 4:13; cf. his commentary to Mishnah, Chagigah 2:1).8 Rambam writes that “one should not stroll through [i.e., learn] the Pardes except if his stomach is full with bread and meat. Bread and meat [means] to know well what is prohibited and permitted.” Despite the warnings, Rambam included some “Pardes material” in his Mishneh Torah (Yad HaChazakah) and in his philosophical work, The Guide for the Perplexed (Moreh Nevuchim). These writings sparked the heated Maimonidean Controversy of the early thirteenth century, in which critics condemned his works. When controversy flared again at the end of that century, the Rashba issued a ban on studying philosophy (not kabbalah) and science (other than medicine) for anyone younger than twenty-five; the Rosh felt that the ban did not go far enough.9 The Shulchan Aruch (YD 246:4) describes the ideal program for Torah study: one should devote one-third of his time to the study of Tanach, one-third to Mishnah and one-third to Gemara; as he progresses he should increase the proportion of time spent on Gemara. The Shulchan Aruch gives an example of a “typical” worker who devotes three hours a day to work and nine hours a day to Torah study. Commenting on this, the great Ashkenazi posek Rabbi Moshe Isserles, the Rema (d. 1572), says that it is permitted on an ad hoc basis to study other areas of knowledge (as long as they are not apostasy) and this is known as Pardes. But these areas should not be studied until one has “filled his belly with meat and wine,” i.e., he knows what is prohibited and permitted. Commenting on this Rema (YD 246:6), the Shach writes that “some have written that one should not study kabbalah until age forty.” He adds that age may be

a necessary, but certainly not a sufficient, condition and that one also needs kedushah, taharah, et cetera. He concludes by observing that most of those who ignored the advice and learned kabbalah prematurely were “snatched away before their time” (cf. Iyov 22:16).

Some authorities maintain that there should be a general limit on the study of kabbalah and other esoteric subjects. Rabbi Shlomo Luria, the Maharshal (d. 1573) complains (Shu”t 98) about ignoramuses learning kabbalah. The Rema equates the substance of philosophy and kabbalah and penned a lengthy essay (Torat Ha’olah, part 3, ch. 4) and a long response (Shu”t 7) on the topic of studying them. He displays intimate familiarity with kabbalah, and explains that he personally only studies such matters on Shabbat, yom tov and Chol HaMoed, and uses the rest of his time to study Mishnah, Talmud, halachah and the relevant commentaries. (Similarly, the Sanzer Rav, Rabbi Chaim Halberstam, states that the essence of life is to study the main parts of Torah all day, and that he involves himself with kabbalah when other people are in their beds and he is fighting off sleep [Divrei Chaim 2, YD 47]).

The Maharshal derives his knowledge of philosophy only from Jewish sources such as Rambam. The Rema bemoans the lack of true kabbalists and that instead “every bore who knows not his right from his left and cannot learn parashah with Rashi, jumps to learn kabbalah.”

The Rema wasn’t bemoaning the fact that these individuals were too young to learn kabbalah, rather that considering their spiritual level, the study of kabbalah was inappropriate.

The Maharsha (d. 1631) was against public dissemination of kabbalah and writes (Chagigah 13a) that it is best “to hide kabbalah” and that the gemara in Chagigah about Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah discourages the study of kabbalah.

Rabbi Yosef Yuspa Nordlinger Hahn (d.

1637), head of the yeshivah and beit din in Frankfurt, Germany, provides a detailed outline of how one should structure his Torah learning (Yosef Ometz, p. 269-271).

For example, he advises studying the Rif as a source for halachah and learning the parashah with Rashi and other commentaries. Although certainly not a kabbalist, he writes that one is not exempt from the study of kabbalah.

Historical events had a great impact on the question of kabbalah study. In the last

350 years, two major movements, the Sabbateans (begun by Shabbetai Zvi, circa 1648) and the Chassidim (founded in the mid-eighteenth century), advocated a much greater role for kabbalah, ultimately causing a backlash regarding its study. The anti-Sabbatean 1756 Brody Cherem, which was endorsed by the Va’ad Arba Aratzot, the Council of Four Lands, banned the study of Lurianic kabbalah for those under age forty. It did, however, permit the study of the Zohar, Shomer Emunim by Rabbi Yosef Ergas and Pardes Rimonim by Rabbi Moshe Cordovero for those above age thirty.10 The first Zemir Arizim (1772), an antiChassidic polemical pamphlet, included the text of the public proclamation in Brody that, amongst other complaints about the Chassidim stated, “We now find in our midst certain wicked people, sinners of Israel . . . . They scorn the entire Oral Law and study only kabbalah.”11 Similar complaints were issued by many of the early opponents of Chassidut. Rabbi Elazar Fleckeles (d. 1826; Teshuvah Me’ahavah, introduction [7b]) decried the fact that those who were not experts in Shas and poskeim were gathering in groups to study Zohar and the writings of the Arizal. He noted that the rabbis before him had attempted to uproot this.12 While opponents of Chassidim (Mitnagdim) were decrying the unhindered spread of kabbalah, they were not neglecting its study. The Gra was arguably the greatest kabbalist of his day; his prime disciple, Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin, encouraged his disciples to study some kabbalah daily. The Gra was convinced that the messianic redemption was contingent upon mastery of kabbalah by all Jews; and eighteenth and nineteenth century Lithuanian Mitnagdim continued to produce leading kabbalists down to the great Leshem, Rabbi Shlomo Elyashiv (d. 1925).13 Despite this, the Lithuanian tradition called for caution when dealing with kabbalah. This approach was codified by Rabbi Avraham Danzig in his important work, Chayei Adam, where he paraphrases Rambam in substituting kabbalah for meta-physics and states, “A person should not study the wisdom of the kabbalah until he has filled his belly with Talmud and codes, and only if he has true fear of Heaven and spends all his time studying Torah. Otherwise it is forbidden. Rabbi Chaim Vital was very stringent about this” (10:12).

Rabbi Chaim “Brisker” Soloveitchik (d.

1918) was opposed to all non-Torah studies and this included philosophy, even Rambam’s Guide. Although he personally read the work thoroughly, he believed that if one’s beliefs were healthy there was no need to study such material, and he made his son Rabbi Moshe promise that he would never read it.14 (Interestingly, in 1950-51 Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, a grandson of Rav Chaim Brisker, gave a year-long course at Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Judaic Studies on Rambam’s Guide.)15 Rabbi Yaakov Emden (d. 1776) writes16 that kabbalah should be revealed only to special individuals, as opposed to the practice of the “new Chassidim” who regularly study the Zohar and have made study of Talmud and halachah infrequent.

He adds that God is not desirous of these people. He then notes that the secrets of the Torah are only transmitted to an individual who is in the “middle of his days,” likely meaning over age thirty-five.

Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook seems to support the study of kabbalah. In a letter written in 1912 (see Iggerot Ha’Ra’ayah, Letter 414; cf. Letter 602), he explains that the restriction on studying Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah applies to practical kabbalah, such as using the Holy Names of God for purposes bordering on prophecy. But Rav Kook considers the intellectual study of kabbalah to be similar to the deeper study of midrash and mussar, which certainly require proper middot and fear of Heaven, but are not off limits. Further, he regards the study of kabbalah from books rather than from a master as not being true study of the esoteric. Therefore, he concludes, it need not be restricted. Particularly in the modern scientific era, Rav Kook considers the study of Ma’aseh Bereishit and Ma’aseh Merkavah to be legitimate intellectual pursuits (Shemoneh Kvatzim 1:597).

Today the study of kabbalah has become popular in the general culture and in academia.17 Concern about these pursuits within the traditional community has led some to cite an age requirement on the study of kabbalah. While, as stated earlier, there are indeed Torah sources that ascribe significance to the age of forty, many of these sources do not link it to the study of kabbalah. The bulk of the Torah sources on kabbalah make the study of the subject dependent on one’s level of Torah knowledge and one’s spiritual development. Moreover, this seems to be Fall 5777/2016 JEWISH ACTION I 93

the approach followed by Jewish communities over time, evidenced by the fact that many major kabbalists throughout history did not even live to see their fortieth birthday!18 This includes Rabbi Isaac (ben Solomon) Luria Ashkenazi (1534-1572), better known as the Arizal who died at age thirty-eight; Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (1707-1746), who died at thirty-nine and Rabbi Elijah Baal Shem of Chelm (1550-1583), who was the first to be given the title “Baal Shem” and died at thirty-three. g

Welcome OU-JLIC/YU

2016-2017

Fellows We are proud to introduce the 3rd cohort of the OU-JLIC/Yeshiva University Fellowship Program.

The Fellowship, a partnership of OU-JLIC and YU, is accredited as a formal internship for the RIETS Fourth Year Internship program and aims to serve as a training ground from which future full-time OU-JLIC rabbis and educators will be drawn.

We look forward to a year of Torah leadership and outstanding contributions to their respective campus communities: Robbie & Ora Schrier, OU-JLIC at Brandeis University Matt & Sheli LeVee, OU-JLIC at Drexel University Tzvi Yaakov & Rifka Miretzky, OU-JLIC at New York University Michael Goldman, OU-JLIC at Queens College Yechiel & Davina Bresler, OU-JLIC at Rutgers University Daniel & Sarah Kasdan, OU-JLIC at Yale University

“The Fellowship is a true springboard for these talented educators as they begin their careers. The training and mentorship they will experience on campus can’t be found elsewhere. This Fellowship has been so enriching for previous cohorts and in turn, they have enriched so many students. They are directly shaping the next generation of American Jewry.”

- RABBI GIDEON BLACK, OU NEXTGEN’S DIRECTOR OF PROFESSIONAL RECRUITMENT AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT BLACK@OU.ORG

94 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

Notes 1. See Moshe Idel, “L’toldot ha’issur lilmod kabbalah lifnei gil arbaim,” AJS Review 5 (1980): 1-20.

2. The implication seems to be that all of Tanach should be studied (Taz, YD 245:2). For many centuries there has been a systemic neglect of this endeavor and this has led some authorities to bemoan the situation (e.g., Bach, YD 245) and others to look for justification (e.g., Shach, YD 245:5).

3. Tosafot (s.v., v’ad) says it means forty years of learning, not age forty.

4. The exception being if the individual under forty is the biggest talmid chacham in the city. The Shulchan Aruch castigates a rabbi who issues halachic rulings despite not being worthy of such. He is called a shoteh rasha, a foolish, evil person who is haughty. See SA, YD 242:13.

5. On the problem of everyone publishing books and the resultant lack of quality control since the invention of the printing press, see the lament of the Chatam Sofer (6:61).

6. These are called “great matters” in the Gemara (Sukkah 28a; Bava Batra 134a).

7. Rashi explains that they ascended to Heaven by means of the Divine Name.

8. For an explanation of how Ma’aseh Bereishit could be physics, see Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Kovetz Ma’amarim V’Iggerot 1, p. 95 (13), who cites Derashot HaRan 1.

See comment of Gra regarding Rambam’s position (Gra, YD 246:18).

9. The series of letters on this topic were published by Rabbi Abba Mari Moshe ben Yosef ha-Yarhi in Minchat Kena’ot. Some of the Rashba’s letters are also found in his Shu”t (414-418). A summary of these responsa is provided in note 8 to Shu”t Rema, 5731 ed.

10. See Pawel Maciejko, The Mixed Multitude: Jacob Frank and the Frankist Movement, 1755-1816 (Jewish Culture and Contexts) (Philadelphia, 2015): 78-79.

11. See Norman Lamm, Torah Lishmah: Torah for Torah’s Sake in the Works of Rabbi Hayyim of Volozhin and His Contemporaries (Hoboken, New Jersey, 1989): 126.

12. Although the Sabbatean movement also reached Sephardic lands, Chassidut did not, and the edicts against kabbalah were the product of Ashkenazic lands. No such curtailments on the study of kabbalah were issued by Sephardim, although there was a major conflict in Yemen at the end of the nineteenth century regarding the authority of the Zohar.

13. See Allan Nadler, The Faith of the Mithnagdim: Rabbinic Responses to Hasidic Rapture (Johns Hopkins Jewish Studies) (Baltimore, 1997): 36-39.

14. See Shulamith Soloveitchik Meiselman, The Soloveitchik Heritage: A Daughter’s Memoir (Hoboken, New Jersey, 1995): 109-110.

15. Notes on this course were recently published as Lawrence J. Kaplan, Maimonides—Between Philosophy and Halakhah: Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s Lectures on the Guide of the Perplexed (Jerusalem, 2016).

16. In his commentary to Gittin 60. For the full, uncensored text, see R. M. M. Segal Goldstein, “Iyunim u’berurim b’Mishnato shel Rabbeinu haYavetz,” Ohr Yisrael 43 (Nissan 5766): 203-204.

17. It has been suggested that authentic kabbalah is to romantic love as academic kabbalah is to biology and popular kabbalah is to pornography.

18. One of America’s greatest experts on kabbalah was Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (1934-1983). And while he lived past age forty, it was not by much. He clearly had begun studying kabbalah before the age of forty.

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Lasting Impressions

By Devora Jaye

THE GHOSTS of

Rosh Hashanahs Past

W

hen I was growing up, Rosh Hashanah was my favorite holiday. Everything was majestic and exciting and I always got a new dress. I always felt that Rosh Hashanah was a do-over, like the first day of school.

The previous year didn’t matter. I was less interested in the spiritual aspect of the holiday and more excited about the possibilities. A Brand New Year. If I yelled at my sister, got bad grades or spoke lashon hara, it was ok; I was starting over. For twenty years of my life I held on to that feeling, that glittery, shiny excitement of the Brand New. And then something happened.

When the Twin Towers fell just before Rosh Hashanah, it changed my life forever. I will never forget those weeks and days leading up to what had been my favorite yom tov. I remember every excruciating second: waiting for news of my brother-in-law who worked at the World Trade Center; not getting good news, like every one of my friends who knew people who were there; deciding to head home to Maryland to wait it out; the car ride to my sister’s apartment to pack up her things; the long drive to my parents’ house; leaving a smoldering city skyline behind in the rearview mirror.

No one spoke. We all moved as if we were underwater. And somehow, then we had to make Rosh Hashanah.

I walked with my father to shul on the first night of the yom tov, so he would not have to go by himself—my brother-in-law was his only son. Everyone was silent. I watched from the women’s section as every man in the shul walked up to my father and hugged him. Davening that Rosh Hashanah was painful. For the first time, I felt connected to the prayers, the judgment, the true meaning of Rosh Hashanah. I could not see the possibilities of the year ahead. There was only one possibility I was interested in: I wanted my brother-in-law to be alive. I prayed like I had never prayed before. My other sister and I were huddled together in shul, as if somehow by combining forces, Hashem would grant

our request. But Rosh Hashanah was ruined for me. It would never again have the same luster, the same tingly excitement it had always had.

A year later, as Rosh Hashanah approached, I was filled with dread. Not the good kind of spiritual “about-to-be-judged” dread.

Just dread. How could I do this again? I didn’t want Rosh Hashanah to come. I couldn’t bear the disappointment. Why bother praying if I was going to be ignored anyway? How could I have my Brand New Rosh Hashanah when I was filled with anger and sadness, when I could not believe Hashem had ignored my heartfelt pleas the year before? I was bereft of the joy that I had

When the Twin Towers fell just before Rosh Hashanah, it changed my life forever. always associated with this holiday. Rosh Hashanah would never be the same again.

But things change. My family has changed. I’ve changed. I have seen that there is comfort in friends and family. I have learned that every moment we have in this world is beautiful.

I have seen how people can become stronger, how families and communities can unite in times of pain. I have learned that we can heal. There might not be a happily ever after, but there is “happy” and there is “after.”

My view of Rosh Hashanah has changed, too. I have learned that it’s not about the shiny Brand New, starting over. It’s about starting over with all the lessons that you learned since the last Rosh Hashanah. It’s about layering every Rosh Hashanah of your life into that Brand New, and applying your own glitter to it. g

Devora Jaye is the director of student programming at MEOR Maryland, a national campus outreach initiative, youth director at the Young Israel Ezras Israel of Potomac, and creative consultant for Dear Coco Chocolate, an award-winning boutique kosher artisan chocolatier. She currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.

96 I JEWISH ACTION Fall 5777/2016

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