2007 June « Rejewvenate!

Hareidi Machismo

June 28, 2007 at 4:40 pm | In halacha | Leave a Comment

Time for another post on Halachics!

The Jerusalem Report has an article about a Hareidi singer who sounds too much like a girl for the liking of Hareidi radio stations. The stations dropped the songs of singer Eliyahu Faizkov after receiving complaints from listeners.

Apparently, the audience of pirate haredi radio stations such as Radio 10, Kol Haneshema and Radio Beit Yisrael does not want anyone to receive the false impression that they are transgressing Jewish law.

A few months back, I blogged about an a cappella album that was released specifically for Sefirah, when many observant Jews will not listen to music played with instruments. The album used a human voice and music production technology to mimic actual instruments. At the time, I said:

The issue does present some interesting halachic possibilities. Should a computer like the one used to modify the vocal tracks be considered an instrument for the purposes of prohibiting listening to the album? Alternatively, can we rest on an essentialist doctrine that claims that even though your ears can’t tell the difference between the voice and the instruments, your ears don’t decide the halacha, and the use of instruments affects the spiritual worlds in real ways that the voice simply cannot duplicate?

I also explained that I thought the halachic analysis missed the point, and I think the new situation demonstrates this. There is not a single posek who thinks that it is prohibited to hear a male singer, no matter how much like a woman he might sound. But radio stations (even pirate radio stations!) have an audience with appetites for a particular product. In the case of Hareidi listeners, there simply is no demand for music that sounds like it is being sung by a woman.

Maybe the lack of demand stems from ignorance over the singer’s masculinity, but my bet is that even those who are aware that the singer is male would prefer that the radio station not play his songs. I think the concern is that other Hareidim, less-connected to the Hareidi music scene, will assume that the voice is female, and that the owner of the radio is not sufficiently pious. Perhaps Faizkov needs to realign his career strategy to this reality, and seek to perform live, or perhaps with artists whose appeal is outside of the Hareidi world, where his talent for mimicking the female voice would be quite marketable.

A Great Debate

June 21, 2007 at 11:49 am | In beliefs, jewish denominations, links roundup | Leave a Comment

I recently discovered a wonderful, ongoing debate about Judaism and the Jewish future between Jack Wertheimer, Provost of JTS and its Chief Academic Officer (who knew such a thing existed?) and Joey Kurtzman, senior editor at Jewcy.com. Wertheimer is the older, more traditional Jew; Kurtzman the younger, atheist, cosmopolitan Jew. Check it out – it’s excellent, challenging, and engaging (though in my opinion, Kurtzman is a bit out of his intellectual league).

The debate is part of an ongoing series of debates at Jewcy called Dialogue, which I highly recommend.

West Lawrence or West Bank?

June 19, 2007 at 1:44 pm | In ethics, israel, politics | 2 Comments

I remember a many years back, real-estate brokers tried to sell people on moving to the fictitious neighborhood of West Lawrence. The neighborhood, more commonly known as Far Rockaway, sits just west of the Five Towns village of Lawrence, and has many Orthodox residents and synagogues, and is accessible to the Five Towns shopping districts. It is also a far more affordable neighborhood, located on the Queens side of the Queens/Nassau border. As teenagers, my friends and I would refer unkindly to the area as Black Lawrence, a play on the name of the ultra-wealthy Back Lawrence section of Lawrence, as well as a not-so-sensitive reference to both the Yeshivish Jewish enclave, and the black and Hispanic residents who predominated.

For many, the decision to move to Far Rockaway was a financial one. Though the Five Towns offered some significant advantages over Far Rockaway, not least being lower crime and cleaner streets, Far Rockaway offered lower prices for housing and significantly lower property taxes. Living in a sea of impoverished immigrants and other minorities may have discouraged some, but others were content to ignore the problem by living within the “Jewish” areas. The trend I saw at home continues abroad, as I read in the Forward:

“Suburbia Sells Settlers on the West Bank – Forward.com”

The article indicates that many olim are replicating their American lifestyles by taking advantage of some absurd incentives. My wife and I have long joked about our friends who moved to what we call the Bet Shemesh section of Teaneck, with all its Anglos, minivans, and wood flooring. Still, living in Israel is a great mitzvah, and while we scoffed at the desire to continue living an American lifestyle even while in Israel, we accepted that those who chose to afford this life were within their rights and were not harming anyone else.

Can the same be said for settlements in the West Bank? As with everything else, generalizations are dangerous. Living in Hebron is different from living in Ariel, which is in turn quite different from living in Gush Etzion. Nevertheless, some strange economic incentive are operating here.

According to the article, Americans are strongly attracted to the gated religious communities of the West Bank. In these modern suburban ghettos (in the Jewish state, no less!) religious families feel safe and comfortable, surrounded by people who share their beliefs, lifestyle and political orientation. Unlike their American counterparts, however, these gated communities are not designed to create a sense of exclusivity or to keep out robbers and other criminals. Rather, they are to keep out Palestinians. And in case the gate wasn’t enough, the communities have application exams, to ensure that all undesirables are kept out.

Security, ironically, becomes an attractive feature of these communities. The IDF serves as both a security guard and a local police force, and military law governs developments. The net effect of this arrangement is that it is much cheaper to develop land in the West Bank than in Israel proper, and those savings are passed along to the consumers. Town residents do not pay municipal taxes for their security and policing, since the army does it for them. The army has thus become a free private security provider to West Bank residents. The costs of providing this attractive level of security are not passed to customers, and unsurprisingly, consumers flock to take advantage of the bonanza.

Once upon a time, Zionists dreamed of a Greater Israel based on geography. Today, we are building a Lesser Israel, importing the crass materialism of American culture and clearly demoting the ideas of social justice and religious dedication that inspired the religious Zionists of a bygone era. I was particularly struck by this statement:

“Before we found Neve Daniel, my husband told me, ‘I love you and I want to live in Israel, but I’m very materialistic and if I don’t have a nice house, we’re not moving,’” said Lara Kwalbrun, a peppy mother of six, as she gave a tour of her luxurious new home while toting a baby in her arms.

I can understand the desire for a nice house, and it’s difficult to censure individuals for taking advantage of a bounty that will surely be claimed by others in any case. Still, there’s something grotesque about the whole thing. A few miles down the road, Palestinians live in abject poverty – a multi-generational misery that has lasted for sixty years. In the other direction, Hareidi Jews live penurious lives at the behest of their religious leaders, content to eke out a life on the increasingly miserly largess of the State. Political and military battles rage over the West Bank settlements, with thousands of casualties implicated in the conflict. And in this raging sea of destitution and desperation lies an oasis of Americans, rich from booming Northeastern real-estate markets, living their American lives in their American homes, secure in the IDF’s protection, and benefiting from a land-development strategy that gives incentives for developing lands in occupied territories over land in Israel proper.

And yet, I can’t help myself. A 2-bedroom co-op in Riverdale goes for $250,000 or more. I can get a 5-bedroom house with separate kitchens in Neve Daniel for under $300,000! That’s a powerful financial incentive! I can’t even imagine how Palestinians feel about this. I know that it doesn’t seem right to me, that’s for sure.

Wet and Wild? Single Women and the Mikvah

June 18, 2007 at 8:58 pm | In beliefs, dating and marriage, halacha, sexuality | 11 Comments

I’m writing now to put forth my position on the topic of mikvah immersion for unmarried women. I’m certainly not the first to speak about this topic. I’ve heard that Rabbi Irving (Yitz) Greenberg suggested, as early as forty years ago, that unmarried women be permitted to go to the mikvah, so as to avoid incurring the penalty of karet (lit. cutting off – the meaning is not entirely certain, but is usually understood as being spiritually eviscerated from the Jewish people) when engaging in premarital sex. Rabbi Greenberg’s position was not welcomed, to say the least.I think Rabbi Greenberg’s position simply didn’t go far enough. It is my belief that all Jewish women, from Bat Mitzvah until menopause, should immerse in the mikvah monthly. From a purely halachic perspective there is no true ban on unmarried women going to the mikvah, and unmarried women did go to the mikvah in the past, prior to participating in the Paschal sacrifice, or prior to touching consecrated goods, priestly tithes and so forth. However, given that premarital sex is forbidden (even if only rabbinically), over the last two thousand years there has been no reason to allow unmarried women to go to the mikvah.

Until today. Based on various studies of American sexuality, Jewish women remain abstinent longer and have fewer sexual partners than their non-Jewish counterparts. However, it is clear that most Jewish women do not come to their marriage beds in virgin white. Interestingly, no Jewish denomination supports or condones premarital sex. The Conservative movement has crept towards an acceptance of premarital sex in monogamous, committed relationships, but I haven’t found any official responsa permitting it. In other words, Jewish denominations have taken the Nancy Reagan approach to premarital sex – just say no.

That approach has proven as ineffectual for premarital sex as it was for drugs. Just as today, US citizens regularly flout inane and draconian drug laws and pay no regard to the dictates of their own legal system, Jews have premarital sex, not even paying lip service to the rabbis and teachers who preach against it. Today, rabbis of every denomination have simply been cut out of the conversation. I personally know of quite a few non-Orthodox parents who have urged their adult children to have premarital sex. Many of them would consider it a mistake to marry while still a virgin, and advise their children to ‘get to know’ their bodies and their sexuality prior to marriage. With the age of marriage climbing in every Jewish denomination, it becomes unreasonable and in some ways even perverse to insist on virginity for the first thirty years of life.

We need to find a way for religious teachings about sex to be heard again. It is true and immutable that Jewish history and halacha speaks out against premarital sex, but it is also true that the Jewish community of today lives in times never before lived, and in societies never before imagined. As other rituals fade or lose their hold over the Jewish imagination, the ritual of Mikvah has found new life. Non-traditional mikvah ceremonies to mark life transitions have become increasingly popular, and even traditional mikvah observance has gained new adherents outside of the Orthodox community. Aside from the pressing halachic concern of the need to prevent issurei karet, there is a more desperate need to bring sexuality back into the religious domain. We need something better than ‘just say no’.

I believe that Jewish women would serve well, and be well-served by, the monthly purification ritual. The cyclical separation from sex would grant couples space and freedom from the throbbing claims of the sexual instinct, and give them new insights into their relationships. I believe it will reduce the instances of premarital sex, and certainly of casual sex outside the framework of a committed relationship. I believe that it will provide another door into Jewish observance and relevance, and that it will strengthen the commitment of Jewish women to express their Judaism in concrete ways. And of course, a woman who goes to the mikvah before she weds will almost surely go after she weds.

Breaking News: Peres Wins an Election

June 13, 2007 at 11:48 am | In israel, politics | Leave a Comment

Shimon Peres, the elder statesman of Israeli politics and an architect of the ill-fated Oslo Accords, has finally won an election, and will serve as Israel’s ninth president. Peres has been at the forefront of Israeli politics for decades, having served as prime minister three times since the 1970s, and in various other leading cabinet roles. Ironically, Peres was never elected Prime Minister. In the 70s he served briefly as a caretaker PM, in the 80s he reached the top post as part of a power-sharing agreement with Yitzhak Shamir, and finally, he last became PM in 1995, after the tragic assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

Peres had been widely expected to win the presidency, a largely ceremonial but diplomatically important position, in 2000, when he ran against relative unknown Moshe Katsav. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, leader of Israel’s Sephardic community, supported Katsav, who pulled off the upset. Katsav has since left the presidency under duress, disgraced by allegations of rape and sexual misconduct. In what we can only hope was an embarrassing reversal, R. Yosef had backed Peres in the recent election, hoping, along with Israel, that Peres’ distinguished career, international respect, and reassuring familiarity will restore the dignity of the office.

Personally, I’ve always felt that Peres was too far left, but I have great respect for him and his devotion to the Jewish State. It is unfortunate that this new office, which should have been a great honor to Peres, has come to him at its lowest moment, but Peres, whatever his other flaws, has always been a team player who put the needs and duties of his country ahead of his personal pride. Yishar Koach, Shimon!

And No Religion Too

June 12, 2007 at 4:16 pm | In beliefs, israel, jewish denominations | 2 Comments

Who would have suspected that John Lennon’s imagined land with no religion might be found in 2007 in the Jewish state?

A friend of mine commented recently that Tel Aviv strikes him as a very odd place. As a Jew living in the United States, we live in a sea of religious expression. You can’t walk five blocks in New York without passing a church synagogue, mosque, or other house of worship – to say nothing of the evangelists of the streets, whose loud preaching is an intrinsic part of the cacophony of our morning commutes. As a Jew then, he explained, he found himself surrounded by some sort of religion, even if it was frequently not his own. Religion, at least, was always in the public square.

Not so Tel Aviv. You can walk up and down the avenues of Tel Aviv, or drive through the wealthy northern suburbs, but so long as you stay north of Yaffo, you’ll find nary a house of worship. Secular Israelis, nominally Jewish, simply do not build religious institutions. In Israel, youare either dati – observant – or chiloni – secular. Though most Israelis actually practice some traditions, and describe themselves as masorti – traditional, synagogue attendance outside the observant camp is limited to the High Holidays, and perhaps a handful of other occasions. Unlike their non-Orthodox counterparts in America, Israelis don’t build alternate houses of worship. Largely, Israelis have only one shul, the shul they don’t go to, and it’s Orthodox.

Or is it? Perhaps some of that is starting to change. The Israeli Conservative movement (Masorti movement) has made some important gains in recent years, in particular, securing the right to pray at Robinson’s Arch, a part of the Kotel. Even the Reform movement has begun to recognize the importance of investing in Israel. And most recently, native Israelis have founded the Secular Yeshiva, a unique religious institute in Tel Aviv, as reported by Haaretz.

It’s no surprise then that in Israel’s most secular city, there is an eerie absence of religion in public. But Judaism today is undergoing upheaval. Everywhere you turn, Jews are breaking out of denominational boundaries and are finding new, even revolutionary means of expressing and practicing their faith. In this maelstrom of creativity there hide the bugaboos of syncretism, hybridization, and assimilation, but nonetheless, Jews are flying without the wires of tradition and are obliterating the demarcations that once may have defined them. Nobody knows where this will go, but in a period of relative peace and prosperity for the Jewish people, I am proud to be a part of this flowering of Judaism.

Taxes and Tuition

June 11, 2007 at 10:24 pm | In education, politics | 2 Comments

Tuition at Jewish schools is probably the most significant expense that Orthodox parents face in raising a large religious family, and prices are only climbing higher. For a family with five or six children, total tuition bills can easily top $100,000 per year!

Sometimes I wonder why the shidduch crisis, a largely undocumented, understudied, and anecdotal problem gets so much community attention and resources, when the easily-quantified, often-studied, and broadly-felt problem of tuition costs stares us in the face, still unsolved.

The OU has been advocating support for a bill that will ease the yeshiva tuition problem in New York State by making tuition costs tax-deductible for middle class families, and providing a tuition credit to poor families. Without getting into the details of the bill, my questions is how is this a good idea? Why should New York State taxpayers pay to send Yossi to yeshiva? Do we want to pay to send Katherine to Catholic school, or Mahmoud to madrassa?

Some will argue that we are merely getting a refund because we don’t use the public school system. But of course, many people don’t use the public school system. Should people without children get the refunds as well? It’s not like we don’t benefit from public schools – the existence of an educated American population is a bedrock on which our national prosperity is built. We expect that most everyone we deal with has a high school diploma, and can read, write, do basic math, and have a shared cultural currency. We would be much poorer and far far less well if we were surrounded by ignorant, illiterate brutes (as we once were in Europe).

We do have a problem with tuition in our communities. It’s a problem we made for ourselves, and it’s one we will have to solve for ourselves. Let’s not go looking in the public till. The OU urges you to call Governor Spiter at (800) 319-3403. I say call him, and express your opposition to the Lopez-Goldin Tuition Tax Deduction Bill.