I’m Gonna Git You, Sukkah

I had the opportunity to pass through both Yeshiva University and the Jewish Theological seminary as the two institutions completed their respective Sukkahs.

At YU, the Sukkah is relatively small (though, to be fair, students are off for Sukkot) and awkward. Built on a wide portion of sidewalk outside of the Beit Midrash on Amsterdam Ave. and 186th street, it looks more like the plywood enclosures built around construction sites than a space for celebrating a holiday. And of course, since it’s built on the sidewalk, it interferes with regular pedestrian traffic. Basically, the Sukkah looks and feels like an afterthought.

JTS has a much nice physical plant than YU to begin with, so perhaps this comparison is doomed from the start, but it was not just the aesthetic appeal of the JTS Sukkah that was so impressive. For starters, JTS built two large Sukkot (no, not one for men and one for women!) in its central courtyard. Each of these is easily larger than the single YU Sukkah. Moreover, the Sukkahs were well-planned and executed. Each Sukkah was built on a large wooden platform, sure to provide a solid, level floor, as well as excellent drainage in case of rain.

Speaking of rain, these Sukkahs are well-prepared. Rising above the schach of each Sukkah is a series of triangular wooden frames, forming the skeleton of a roof. Perched at the peak of this roof, and bound up in rope, is a large, rolled tarp. It appeared that with a yank on the right cord, the trap would unroll down both sides of the frame-roof, quickly covering the Sukkah and protecting it from the rain. Ingenious!

Yet even this was not the most impressive thing about the Sukkahs. What struck me most was that at JTS, outside of each Sukkah was an industrial-size fire extinguisher. That touch spoke of foresight, planning, and concern for health, safety, and municipal codes. It spoke to me of what it means to be a a good host, and a mensch. For all the Orthodox tzaddikim who will spend hundreds on their etrogim, and will build Sukkot with windows, space-heaters, and plumbing, it’s worth remembering that a fire extinguisher is no less a religious duty, and no less a fulfillment of our responsibilities towards God and towards one another than arba minim or eating in the Sukkah.

Are fire extinguishers incompatible with Orthodoxy? Of course not. But when your focus on improving your service to God is expressed through the halachic lens of hiddur, beautification, it is easy to lose sight of concerns that are far more basic, and which go neglected far too often.

A, Ach, Achma, Achmadinejad

Yes, the newest Persian threat to all of Judaism came to New York and spoke at Columbia University. My rabbi actually spoke about it right before Mussaf on Yom Kippur, and urged the congregation to attend the rally at the UN.

I’m not a member of the Achmadinejad fan club, of course. I think that his statements about Holocaust denial are unacceptable, but they are far less extreme and offensive, in many ways, than the opinion, commonly held throughout the Muslim world, that 9/11 was a Zionist plot. After all, 9/11 happened only six years ago, and was perhaps the most-covered event in human history to date.

I’m not an expert on Iran, but it strikes me as obvious that Iran has not a single thing to gain from accepting the Holocaust narrative as it is told in the West. Moreover, whatever Antisemitism you may wish to impute to Iran, there is no question or doubt that it, almost alone among its neighbors, is accepting of the Jewish faithful within its borders. There aren’t any Jews in Saudi Arabia. Though some have cast Achmadinejad as Hitler II, or perhaps Haman II, Jews have lived peaceably in Iran for generations.

Not only does Iran have little to gain from accepting the Holocaust, and implicitly then, the modern basis for the State of Israel, Iran has no incentive for getting along with the US. Unlike Egypt or Jordan, Iran doesn’t need money. With Iraq gone, Iran has no significant conventional military threat facing it. With its long-range missiles, Iran has a fair deterrent power and relatively long arm, and while I do not have confirmation that Iran possesses chemical weapons, I find it hard to believe that it could not get its hands on them.

What can the US offer Iran other than cultural hegemony? Iran doesn’t want our Wal-Marts and our McDonalds, our Vogue magazine and our MTV. And they want recognition as one of the great empires and cultures of history. And of course, with nuclear-armed neighbors all around them, including Pakistan, India, Russia, and, of course, Israel, Iran’s wondering on what grounds it is to be fairly restrained from acquiring those weapons.

As many of us know, Achmadinejad is himself a figurehead, who stands in for the Ayatollah, who is the real power in Iran. And unlike Achashverosh or old, or Hitler, the Ayatollah is not motivated by an obsessive hatred of Jews. I think that we need to acknowledge that the Ayatollah has a love for Islam and for Persian identity. We need not paint Iran and its leaders in black and white. Iran is powerful, and potentially dangerous, but not necessarily so. Neither the US, nor Israel, nor the Jewish community, should paint themselves into an untenable corner. Iran is certainly funding terrorists and engaging in a sort of Cold-War conflict with the US and Israel, but let’s not forget that the threats Iran faces, whether from the US troops across its border, or the Israeli planes and missiles parked not very far away, are much greater than those it presents.

Shul of Dreams

Per XGH and DovBear:

Rabbi: David Hartman
Scholar in residence: Moshe Halbertal
Chazzan: No pay for pray – members of the kehilla daven for the amud.
President: Richard Joel
Gabbai: Nosson Slifkin
Nishei: Jill Jacobs
Kiddush Club Chevrah: Herschel Shanks, James Kugel, Jeremy Rosen

Who Says You Can’t Imprison the Soul?

The federal government is willing to give it a go.

The New York Times reports that the Federal Bureau of Prisons has been purging prison libraries of religious books. Why would the government seek to restrict prisoners’ access to religious books? Apparently, the Justice Department (yes, the same Justice Department headed up first by John Ashcroft and then by since-disgraced Alberto Gonzalez) decided in 2004 that this was a good way to prevent prisoners from becoming terrorists.

The plan, in brief, works like this. First, you select a secret, undisclosed panel of religious experts. Next, you divide the vast religious spectrum into twenty religions or religious categories, and you then dictate that for each category, only 150 books and 150 multimedia resources can be made available. The shadowy panelists make those determinations, with no process for review or appeal of their decisions. Give the whole thing a chilling name like the “Standardized Chapel Library Project”, and walk off saying that you seek to limit prisoners from getting at material that could “discriminate, disparage, advocate violence, or radicalize.”

Needless to say, the government is being sued over this, though experts say that the case is not as clear-cut as outraged progressive liberals like myself may perceive it to be.

Notably, the panel of experts may not be fully representative of the various religions. Of the 120 Jewish books, fully 80 are published by the same Orthodox publisher (the Times doesn’t report which publisher, but I’m sure we can all guess…) I wonder if the Judaism ‘expert’ was a Aish guy.

To me though, the most offensive thing about this is the assumption that lies at the core of the plan: that exposure to religious material breeds terrorism. It’s like the recent drivel by CNN’s resident Antisemite, Christiane Amanpour – a series called God’s Warriors, which profiled terrorists by religious affiliation, including an episode each on Jews, Christians and Muslims. There’s no evidence for the claim, as best as I can tell, that religion drives people to terrorism, any more than there is evidence for the claim that atheism is linked to depression and suicide. But saying something closer to the truth, namely, that Muslim teachers, writings, and role models abound for the would-be terrorist (which is not true of Judaism or Christianity on any similar scale), is a little too judgy for our society. Instead, we have to cloak our desire to limit prisoners’ exposure to a corrosive, ahteful, and dangerous ideology in a more general ban on religious ideas – as though the religion is the common denominator.

Shouldn’t we just limit access to all inciting material in prisons? What precisely is the added benefit of grouping these materials based on a religious dimension?

Tuition Relief and the Tax Code

I was reading this thought-provoking article in the New York Times about the actual economic meaning of making charitable donations tax-deductible. The article is worth discussing on its own merits, but I want to talk about the implications it has for private Jewish education.

The bar for becoming a tax-exempt organization is set relatively low. Among the examples quoted in the website is an organization to help S&M fans who lost their gear to Hurricane Katrina get new whips, chains, manacles, and ball-gags.

Many private schools have ancillary foundations that raise funds to support the parent institution. Here’s my plan. Let’s say that tuition is $20,000 at the local Yeshiva (or, Hebrew Academy, lo aleinu). You can set up a foundation to support the Yeshiva, and only offer admission to members of the foundation. Have the yeshiva charge $5,000 tuition, and have membership in the foundation cost $15,000 per child. Voila, 75% of tuition at the Yeshiva is tax-deductible!

In the past, I opposed tax relief for private school tuition. Let me clarify the apparent contradiction. I have no problem with taking advantage of current laws and tax avoidance techniques, I just think we shouldn’t vote in new benefits for ourselves without considering he broader community.. That’s our system, and rational people should try to pay as little in taxes as legally required. There is no legal or ethical requirement to be a sucker on taxes and pay more than what is legally required. It’s the government’s job to make sure that the tax system is structured appropriately to collect what is needed.

The other key difference is that my plan makes tuition dollars deductible from your federal income tax as well as your state income tax, and it does not limit the deduction to families making under $150k.

I’m sure that there’s an accountant out there, or a tax lawyer, who will explain why this idea doesn’t work or is illegal. And yes, if all private schools used this we’d have to re-write the tax code. But that’s what I’ve been saying all along! If this is legal, let’s do it!

Music For Repenting

One year ago, I conceived of putting together a mix (as I am wont to do) in honor of Elul. The theme of the mix is Teshuva, repentance. I use music to set the mood for many things I do. Aside from the usual work mixes, drive mixes, and romantic mixes, I have my Friday mixes, for getting into the Shabbat mood, mixes for intense relaxation, music for flying, and music for cooking. I’ve got the music I listen to when I need to feel some emotional pain, and the mixes I listen to when I need some adrenaline and a kick in the rear. So why not a teshuva mix? The High Holidays can creep up on you if you don’t prepare for them, and having a mix I can listen to that brings me to some introspection, some deeper questioning and consideration, helps remind me that the time has come to evaluate the year, and evaluate my relationship with God.

In hopes that this music can do the same for you, I offer you my latest mix, 40 Day Return Policy.¹

If you enjoy this mix, please donate something to your favorite charity, or to one of mine.

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¹ Note, this mix is not offered with any return policy.

XGH: You Make the Call! rejewvenator: Is it football season again?

Gosh I loved those commercials.

XGH has been fuming and fulminating again, this time with a mock quiz designed to make the non-skeptics look foolish and hypocritical. I’ve decide to take the quiz, mainly because XGH brings up very important issues, but he pisses me off a lot too, especially with his dsimissive attitude towards issues of great complexity.

Anyway, here’s the quiz, with my answers in red:

1. If you don’t believe in God, there’s no reason he should let you into Heaven (chaim b)

(a) If God is that petty and vindictive, then he’s no god.
(b) That’s a Christian concept, not a Jewish one.
(c) You seem to be lacking in basic human empathy.
(d) You’re an idiot if you think God thinks like that.
(e) Yes! God should roast you in hell for all eternity for not believing in him
(f) Other – Nobody deserves to go to Heaven (itself a concept not entirely Jewish) on their own merits. But while a guy like Michael Steinhardt may not believe in God, I can think of millions of other reasons why God might reach out His hand and welcome that man into Heaven, or the afterlife fantasy of your choice.

2. Everyone has an innate belief in God, but Atheists davkah deny it. Also anyone can make themselves believe anything. (chaim b again)

(a) Stupid and clearly not true, except with brainwashing or with unusual individuals.
(b) When people have an innate desire for homosexuality, they are told they must crush it, so why should an ‘innate’ anything be somehow noble?
(c) So go make yourself belief in Jesus.
(d) Affirmitive. I will believe what ever you tell me to believe master.

(d), minus the snarky final sentence. While belief may not be 100% under our control, what you wind up believing is largely a function of what you expose yourself to and the company you keep. To think otherwise is the height of arrogance. Of course the term belief, especially within the context of religious expectations,is so variously defined that statements made about the term are themselves difficult to pin down.

3. I will never allow kefirah on my site because I could never allow anyone to see anything anti Torah. (Gil last week)

I am moving to a new blog with Luke Ford. Luke is a very talented person. This will be the must read blog for all contemporary Jews. I refuse to say whether Reshimu will allow skeptical posts and comments. (Gil this week)

(a) You’re full of it.
(b) You’re full of it.
(c) Did I mention that you’re full of it?
(d) Nu, it’s for parnasah. Everything is muttar for parnasah.

(e) Anything is muttar for the sake of pluralism. None of us thinks that there’s a lot of money to be made in j-blogging, whether on our own individual sites or in group blogs. By passing control to a larger umbrella, Gil can assuage his conscience that he personally is not tolerating or supporting kefira, while opening his voice and his publishing house to an audience that he might never otherwise reach. But why take him to task? Is there some other venue where Jews like Ford and Student would voluntarily congregate? This is an unworthy machloket – what is it XGH, did Reshimu not ask you to join?

4. Why do you have to spew your kefirah? Why can’t you let people be? (various)

(a) Why do you have to spew your nonsense? Many people think fundamentalist religion is far more dangerous than agnosticism. If God exists, but religion is man made, then you’re nothing special. In fact, God may be quite annoyed at your antics.
(b) You participate in a society where certain beliefs and behaviors are required. It is davkah not easy to leave this society. So who is in whose face here???
(c) Because I’m an evil nihilist who’s only goal is to destroy everybody and everything. Buwahahahaha!

(d) All of the above, and a few others. The greatest conflict between modernity and tradition is about freedom of information. Traditionalists may wish to suppress knowledge that they feel is dangerous, and to keep hidden the inconvenient, challenging, and threatening truths, but those horses have long since departed the barn. The only way forward, in my opinion, is to be aggressively honest, open, and forthright about what we think, and believe about our heritage, while at the same time being passionate and emotional about how we feel, commemorate, celebrate and practice our heritage. That’s the Ahava and Yirah for our time.

Joshua 7 – The First Shoe Drops

If Joshua 1-6 presented the ideal transfer of power from one leader to the next and the perfect entrance into the land of Israel, precisely as promised in the earlier books of the Torah, and particularly in Deuteronomy, Joshua 7 is the example of failure.

Unlike the failures of the Pentateuch, like the sin of the spies or the Golden Calf, this failure is the failure of but a single soul in Israel, the forever infamous Achan Ben Carmi. Joshua 7 opens by informing us that this is the story of the first failure of the entire people, even as it singles out Achan as the sole violator. The extent to which all of Israel are responsible for one another, and responsible to God as a whole is simply unbearable, unlivable! Consider:

א וַיִּמְעֲלוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל מַעַל, בַּחֵרֶם; וַיִּקַּח עָכָן בֶּן-כַּרְמִי בֶן-זַבְדִּי בֶן-זֶרַח לְמַטֵּה יְהוּדָה, מִן-הַחֵרֶם, וַיִּחַר-אַף יְהוָה, בִּבְנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל.

1. But the children of Israel committed a trespass concerning the devoted thing; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the devoted thing; and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.

God is angry over the trespass of one man, from one family, from one clan, from one tribe; his anger is kindled against all of Israel. This state of affairs, this collective punishment, is too high a standard for mortals.

The Jewish people are as unreasonable as God, though. They turn out to defeat Ai, a smaller town, with only 3,000 troops; compare to the total adult population of Ai, which was about 12,000 people. In their first encounter with the men of Ai, the Israelites are defeated, and thirty-six soldiers are killed. All of a sudden, despite the miracles perceived at Jericho, the Israelites lose courage, and their hearts turn to water. Bunch of wusses, right?

Joshua, playing his best Moses, immediately puts on the sack-cloth and ashes, and confronts God, saying:

ז וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֲהָהּ אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה, לָמָה הֵעֲבַרְתָּ הַעֲבִיר אֶת-הָעָם הַזֶּה אֶת-הַיַּרְדֵּן, לָתֵת אֹתָנוּ בְּיַד הָאֱמֹרִי, לְהַאֲבִידֵנוּ; וְלוּ הוֹאַלְנוּ וַנֵּשֶׁב, בְּעֵבֶר הַיַּרְדֵּן.

7 And Joshua said: ‘Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast Thou at all brought this people over the Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to cause us to perish? would that we had been content and dwelt beyond the Jordan!

It’s so all-or-nothing. The paradigm for the relationship is Holiness – kedusah, as can be seen from these verses.

יא חָטָא, יִשְׂרָאֵל, וְגַם עָבְרוּ אֶת-בְּרִיתִי, אֲשֶׁר צִוִּיתִי אוֹתָם; וְגַם לָקְחוּ, מִן-הַחֵרֶם, וְגַם גָּנְבוּ וְגַם כִּחֲשׁוּ, וְגַם שָׂמוּ בִכְלֵיהֶם.	11 Israel hath sinned; yea, they have even transgressed My covenant which I commanded them; yea, they have even taken of the devoted thing; and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have even put it among their own stuff.
יב וְלֹא יֻכְלוּ בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, לָקוּם לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֵיהֶם–עֹרֶף יִפְנוּ לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֵיהֶם, כִּי הָיוּ לְחֵרֶם; לֹא אוֹסִיף לִהְיוֹת עִמָּכֶם, אִם-לֹא תַשְׁמִידוּ הַחֵרֶם מִקִּרְבְּכֶם.	12 Therefore the children of Israel cannot stand before their enemies, they turn their backs before their enemies, because they are become accursed; I will not be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.
יג קֻם, קַדֵּשׁ אֶת-הָעָם, וְאָמַרְתָּ, הִתְקַדְּשׁוּ לְמָחָר: כִּי כֹה אָמַר יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל, חֵרֶם בְּקִרְבְּךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל–לֹא תוּכַל לָקוּם לִפְנֵי אֹיְבֶיךָ, עַד-הֲסִירְכֶם הַחֵרֶם מִקִּרְבְּכֶם.	13 Up, sanctify the people, and say: Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow; for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: There is a curse in the midst of thee, O Israel; thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take away the accursed thing from among you.

 

God is heavily involved in this process of sanctification – it is He who, with no details provided, selects first the tribe, then the clan, then the family, and finally the man, Achan, who has taken from the spoils. Joshua approaches Achan, and Achan confesses to taking a mantle, 250 shekels of silver, and a ‘tongue’ or bar of gold weighing 50 shekels and buyring them in the earth near his tent.

When the story is confirmed, God, who had been so involved in brining this matter to the Israelites’ attention, and in pointing out the guilty party, is no longer the active party. The next thing that happens defies my understanding as a person, even as it fits perfectly the holiness paradigm that we have seen to this point.

Achan, the spoils, his sons and daughters, his flocks, his tent, and all his possessions were gathered together. Then they were all stoned, and burned, and a cairn of stones was erected over them. Collective punishment. Murder. A very difficult passage to come to terms with.

Achan appears, in my mind, to be a foil to Rachav from Jericho. This is a bit of a stretch, but it seems as though the destruction wrought upon Jericho was incomplete, not only because of the spoils that Achan took, but also because Rachav and her family were saved. The destructive powers unleashed on Jericho were not fully satisfied; Achan, by taking from the spoils, unleashes those forces on himself and his own family, even as Rachav managed to save her whole family through her faithfulness to the spies. Her proper hiding of the spies and deception of the searchers led to salvation. Achan’s improper hiding of the spoils and admission to the searchers of its location leads to his destruction.

Agunah Update

Please make sure to refrain from doing business with www.succah.com or www.succah.safewebshop.com, as they are owned by Mr. Sam Rosenbloom, who continues to refuse to give his wife a get, leaving her an agunah.  He continues to be subject to a seruv (i.e., he is in contempt of beit din), and it is thus halakhically prohibited to engage in any contact with him, economically or socially.  See http://www.ouradio.org/images/uploads/rav_hauer77.JPG.

So spake my rabbi, and I pass it on to you. Can’t help but feeling like it’s a drop in the bucket though.