Rabbi Michael Leo Samuel

The frum world (a.k.a., the Orthodox world) is experiencing a healthy dose of adolescent rebellion. More and more frum kids are observing what’s called, “Half-Shabbos” Evidently, teens love text-messaging one another-even if it happens to be the Sabbath!! Parents be careful how you deal with this problem. If you come down hard, I can promise you your kids will rebel in other religious areas, e.g., dining out, free love-you name it. Follow the path of Hillel instead of Shammai and offer unconditional love-or suffer the consequences.

The halacha regarding electronic writing is quite fascinating. It is debatable whether electronic writing on the Sabbath is even forbidden. Consider the following illustration. Ask yourself according to Halacha, is erasing God’s Name permitted or forbidden to do on a computer screen? You would be surprised to know that erasing God’s Name is not considered a crime. In fact, my Bar Ilan Torah database allows me to remove God’s Name from the text!! To use another analogy, is writing on a steam-covered mirror considered writing? Not really, because the act of writing must be permanent to be considered writing. Now, in the case of a computer, once the writing is printed-then it is a different matter…

In one conversation I had with some congregants about this subject, I mentioned that the Orthodox ought to consider following the approach of the Amish, who allow their young people to experiment with the world before making a formal commitment to become a member of their community. Oddly enough, most return to that lifestyle. I do think that the more we put pressure to religiously conform, the more we are encouraging our kids to leave their faith. Take my Uncle Sam (no relation to the picture above), who was the son of Orthodox immigrants. As a young boy he loved playing baseball, but his parents were so frum and told him that he was forbidden to play. Well, after he became an adult, he never went back to a synagogue for the next 60+ years. When my students tell me they wish to do something on the Shabbat, e.g., playing ball, or date-I always tell them to have a great time. Judaism-regardless of the denomination-must never become a straight-jacket.

In Freudian terms, the adolescent (this applies even to the pre-adolescent) looks at the parent and realizes, “I am not my parent, I am ME.” This budding awareness of self-realization marks the beginning of a life-long journey toward individuation, and becoming a whole person. The more parents try to force their kids to become “Mini-Me’s,” to quote the movie hero, Austin Powers, the more frustrated parents will become. A very large percentage of the Orthodox world is made up of ba’ale teshuva--”born-again-Jews” to Orthodoxy. Just as most of them rebelled against their parents form of Judaism, it is quite possible the next generation will rebel against their parents’ religiosity, which they may feel is either too austere, or too hypocritical.

The early 20th century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein observed that all language is really a game. Like a game, language has rules, e.g.. syntax, and a goal: to communicate ideas in a free and unfettered way. Truthfully, the entire Halachic enterprise is also a language game-however, the players can often change the rules of the game. In fact, that’s what adults do all the time. Whenever I play Scrabble, I love to modify the rules a little bit with my partners-just to make the game a bit more interesting. Why can’t we do the same with Halachic discourse? The mechanism is there, and much of the Responsa literature proves that Halachah is seldom ever fixed.

Permit me to illustrate this last point with the following example: I would argue that electricity resembles water more than it does fire. Turning on an electrical switch is not much different from turning on a water faucet. Liberalization of Halacha would make everyone’s life much easier and less neurotic.

Can we do better? With a loving heart and broad-minded attitude, you might be surprised.

The articles I read on the subject neglected to mention something important-most single Orthodox people I know not only text, they also bend the Shabbat rules in other ways too. Continue Reading

Delta’s newest agreement with Saudi Arabia has been one of the more explosive (pardon the pun!) stories to hit the airwaves in recent years. Now, in partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines, Delta Airlines has made a deal—no Jews, Bibles, crosses are allowed to be on board whenever Delta destined flight is flying over the Saudi Arabian airspace—even if the Jewish passengers remain on-board in transit.

I can just imagine hearing, “Ladies and Gentlemen, as we are now approaching Saudi Arabia, our Captain has turned on the no Jews light . . .”

Delta executives claim that they are merely following the laws of the country and their right to determine which citizens it wishes to accept into their country. Thus, “If a passenger travels without proper documents, the passenger may be denied entry into that country and our airline may be fined. Delta assumes responsibility for ensuring that each passenger boarding our aircraft has the proper documents for travel to their ticketed destination.”

I also wonder what Delta would say if the host country said, “We don’t allow homosexuals, or Negroes in our country.” Would Delta say, “Sure, that’s fine with us!” What if the KKK wanted to exclude blacks on their flight to Crackerville, what would Delta say?

How would the gay and lesbian communities react? What would Afro-Americans say if such a policy was in force by Delta?

What if a foreign government said, “We welcome everyone except for Hispanics!” Would Delta say, “We will gladly comply with your rules . . .”?

What about if someone said, “All Asians are banned from our flight . . .,” what then?

At what point does a corporation say, “Enough is enough already. We prefer to keep you out of our partnership until you decide to become more tolerant toward other ethnic and religious groups”? Plain and simple, isn’t it? It seems that Delta has doing business in Saudi Arabia for decades, why not tell the Saudis, “We do not wish for you to be a part of our SkyTeam for now . . .”

The more I was thinking about this development, the thought occurred to m that this material is really suitable for Saturday Night Live. I wondered, “What is Delta going to do if someone in the middle of the flight announces, ‘My Saudi brothers and sisters, I AM JEW!” ? Are they going to throw the Jew off the plane?’” Perhaps we can look to the singer Ella Fitzgerald for some inspiration:

I can just imagine the Saudi and Delta authorities during mid-flight singing in unison, Continue Reading