29 Dec

Haredim are Hiding a Dangerous Subculture


Categories: in American Jewish Issues, Bible, Contrarian wisdom, Current Events, ethics, good and evil, Halacha, Holidays, Israel, Jewish customs, Jewish History, The Future of Judaism

Today, the head of the American Haredi group, Agudath Israel has finally come out of the closet to articulate their position—after considerable soul searching for the right nomenclature, I might add! Its spokesman, Rabbi Avi Shafran, is no stranger to controversy. In his statement to the public, he writes:

  • Reports of recent events in the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh are deeply disturbing. Violence of any sort, whether physical or verbal, by self-appointed “guardians” of modesty is reprehensible. Such conduct is beyond the bounds of decent, moral - Jewish! - behavior. We condemn these acts unconditionally. Those who have taken pains to note that the small group of misguided individuals who have engaged in this conduct are not representative of the larger charedi community are to be commended. It is disturbing, though, that some Israeli politicians and secularists have been less responsible, portraying the actions of a very few as indicative of the feelings of the many. Quite the contrary, the extremist element is odious to, and rejected by, the vast majority of charedi Jews.Lost in all the animus and ill will, unfortunately, is the concept ostensibly at the core of the controversy: the exalted nature of tzenius, or Jewish modesty.

    Judaism considers human desires to constitute a sublime and important force, but one whose potential for harm is commensurate with its potential for holiness. In a society like our own, where the mantra of many is, in effect, “anything goes,” many charedi Jews, men and women alike, see a need to take special steps - in their own lives and without seeking to coerce others - to counterbalance the pervasive atmosphere of licentiousness, so as to avoid the degradation of humanity to which it leads.It would be tragic were the acts of violence to lead Jews to, G-d forbid, reject the culture of tzenius that has always been the hallmark of the Jewish nation, to regard Jewish modesty as something connected to violence and anger, rather than to refinement and holiness.

First of all I would like to commend the rabbi for at least condemning the violence that took place in Beth Shemech. However, Rabbi Shafran seems to think that there is some legitimacy in Haredi complaint about the “immodest” clad eight-year old children.

The question occurred to me after some reflection: What kind of person would find an eight year old girl’s modest clothing (by Halachic standards) “immodest,” or even “provocative”? The answer ought to be real obvious: pedophiles. Most normal people would never even think of regarding a young seven or eight year-old girl as a sex object.

If you think the Catholic Church has problems, wait till you see the Haredi problems that has infested their community. Haredi rabbis in New York, Baltimore, and other cities have been hiding pedophiles in their midst for decades. The issue of pedophilia has been threatening to undermine the house of cards that is holding up the Haredi community in Israel and especially here in the United States.

Rabbi Shafran and his organization really need to ask themselves, what kind of perverted subculture are the Haredim trying to desperately hide?

29 Dec

An Insight from a Fractured Era . . .


Categories: in Askarabbi, ethics, Halacha, Jewish customs, Jewish History

From Jewish Values ONLINE:

Question: Is it okay for an unmarried 22 year old couple to sleep together in the same bed, in the same room as the woman’s 11 year old brother?

Answer: In the interest of brevity, I must say that the Halacha frowns upon young people sleeping together before they get married. That being said, historically, young people will always act like young people regardless of what the codes of Jewish Law or books of Etiquette have to say.

Still, young people tend to forget how easily it is to get pregnant. That’s one of life’s simple complications and that is why marriage is such a great institution for young people who love one another to seriously consider. Mind you, I am not condoning the behavior; I am merely speaking about its reality in our times.

However, when you add an eleven year old brother to the mix, I think you are modeling some very poor behavior. Parents must have privacy; in fact, everyone ought to have privacy. Granted, that is not always possible. Here is my recommendation: (1) Have your eleven year-old brother sleep in the living room. (2) Do not engage in any intimacy while he is in the house. (3) Better still, have the boy stay with his parents—where he belongs.

As I was going through the classical Jewish legal texts dealing with Jewish etiquette, I came across several interesting historical facts that most rabbis and lay people are probably unaware of. In the impoverished communities of Europe, Jewish and non-Jewish families did not always have the luxury of having separate bedrooms like we now have today.

It was not uncommon for entire families share one bed [1]—provided of course, people were modestly attired. Given the lack of heat, the circumstances were decidedly different because a sick child might not survive without the body heat of the other family members. Such a practice was very common throughout the medieval period as well.[2] By the 18th century, the custom of family beds became widely unusual throughout most of Europe.

In the United States, the practice continued into the 20th century. Even Abe Lincoln, while traveling, would share a bed with a friend.[3]

My, the world has changed . . .

Given the problems we know recognize about pedophilia, we can now say in retrospect the medieval practice of families sharing a bed or a bedroom ought to be strongly discouraged.

 

Notes:

[1] Even HaEzer 21:7. This Halachic passage would strike any reader as offensive, and I purposely did not translate the material for the JVO. Suffice it to say, we have come a long way and the world-thankfully-is no longer the same.

[2] Jeffrey L. Singman, “Daily Life in Medieval Europe” (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing, 1999), 46.

[3] Stephen Mennell, “The American Civilizing Process”(Oxford: Polity Press, 2007), 64-65.

29 Dec

Cosmic Personalism in the Psalms


Categories: in Askarabbi, Bible, biblical history, biblical theology, Hassidic Theology, Heart-Centered Judaism, Interfaith Dialogue, Judaism and Ecology, science and religion, Stories for the Searching Heart, The Future of Judaism, Theology and Philosophy

Q. Why is there a tradition to say chapters of Tehillim (the Psalms) when someone is ill?

A. Certain psalms give expression to our deepest yearnings that God is attentive to our prayers. Jewish mystics seem to believe that the psalms act as spiritual conduits, providing the worshiper with a language of prayer, since not everyone is articulate!

When the ancient psalmists gazed into the heavens, they did not behold an endless abyss of cosmic nothingness; rather, they beheld a God with whom they could audaciously and personally address as “You.” All these sundry personal pronouns and anthropomorphic metaphors serve to convey something profound about the mystery of God’s Presence and closeness to the world, without which God could not be known. Martin Buber notes that in addition, anthropomorphic language reflects.

  • Our need to preserve the concrete quality is evidenced in the encounter. . . .It is in the encounter itself that we are confronted with something compellingly anthropomorphic, something demanding reciprocity, a primary You. This is true of those moments of our daily life in which we become aware of the reality that is absolutely independent of us, whether it be as power or as glory, no less than of the hours of great revelation of which only a halting record has been handed down to us. [1]

When viewed from this perspective, the God we encounter in the Psalms is not the God of the philosophers who often conceived God as the Creator of the Cosmos. In the Psalms, God is also a Redeemer Who takes cognizance of human prayer and the heart that suffers. In the final analysis, to the Psalmists of old, God is a relational Being Who seeks to heal the shattered human heart (Psalm 147:2). The psalmists believe in a concept that is sometimes better described as “cosmic personalism.”

Psalm 8:5-10 really captures the beauty of this theological and spiritual concept in a way that captures the fragility and potential greatness of the human condition.

What are humans that you are mindful of them,

mere mortals that you care for them?

Yet you have made them little less than a god,

crowned them with glory and honor.

You have given them rule over the works of your hands,

put all things at their feet:

All sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field,

The birds of the air, the fish of the sea,

and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

O LORD, our Lord,

How awesome is your name through all the earth!

Not all Psalms are the same; the Psalter (i.e., the composer) expresses feelings of doom and gloom, sickness, homelessness, birth and rebirth, death, joy, reflections, gratitude—a cacophony of emotions that even the most common worshiper in a synagogue or church can readily identify and understand.

Jewish tradition has long encouraged Jews of all generations to see their personal narrative as something that is embedded in the words of the Psalms. The Psalmist in essence created a liturgical template for all Jews to use regardless of their spiritual circumstances.

Psalms of healing vary from community to community; Chabad is fond of saying Pss. 20, 6, 9, 13, 16, 17, 18, 22, 23, 28, 30, 31, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41, 49, 55, 56, 69, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 102, 103, 104, 107, 116, 118, 142, 143, and 148—a total number of 36, which equals 2 x 18 (chai, “life”). Bratzlav Hassidim are fond of saying Psalms 16, 32, 41, 42, 59, 77, 90, 105, 137, 150 during their midnight prayers that mourn for the loss of the Temple.

Sephardic and many Kabbalistic Jews are accustomed to recite Psalm 119, which is an acrostic psalm that contains all the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. It is apropos to say out loud the verses letters of the verses corresponding to each of the sick person’s—or deceased person’s Hebrew name (i.e., the latter would apply on a Yahrzeit). Continue Reading