One of the most insidious aspects of the Internet is the phenomena of "religious" websites which are filled with non-religious content, such as kfira, immodesty, lashon hara etc. etc. People innocently think that since the writers are religious, the content will reflect religious values, but this is rarely the case. I once saw a video on such a site where the message was an inspiring "Life isn't fair but we must grin and bear it". The message was conveyed forcefully - "life isn't fair - deal with it".
That is ABSOLUTE kfira. א-ל אמונה ואין עוול - G-d is PERFECT with no injustice. Life is COMPLETELY FAIR. It may not SEEM fair at times but we believe with emuna shleima that Hashem has a big plan and that we only see part of the picture.
Here is an article from a "religious" "kiruv" site about Joan Rivers, who just passed away.
June 8, 1933 a little girl, Joan Alexandra Molinsky, was born. Her parents, Beatrice and Meyer, were Russian Jewish immigrants who raised their two daughters originally in Brooklyn before settling in Larchmont, New York. Joan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Barnard College in 1954 and before entering show business, she worked as a tour guide at Rockefeller Center, as a writer at an advertising agency and as a fashion consultant at Bond Clothing Store. She changed her name to Joan Rivers when she entered the acting world, and in February 1983, she became the first female comedian to ever perform at Carnegie Hall. She became famous for her direct sense of humor and for her insistence in "telling it like it is."
Though Joan was not an observant Jew, she was a member of Temple Emanuel in New York and often stated publicly that she "loved Israel." In the middle of Operation Protective Edge this past summer Joan told the media: "Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out. And Palestinians, you cannot throw rockets and expect people not to defend themselves. Don't you dare put weapon stashes in private homes. They started it. You're all insane. How do I know? Because I have been over there. That's how I know. And I wish the world would know. And BBC should be ashamed of themselves and CNN should be ashamed of themselves and everybody stop it already."
When Joan died on Thursday afternoon at the age of 81, from a series of cardiac complications following a routine surgery, the Jewish people lost one of our most outspoken and unapologetic voices. We may not have appreciated all of Joan's jokes or her satirical humor style, but we can learn from her courage and strength.
I am not going to waste my or your time with the rest of the article. The reality [from a Jewish perspective] was much different than as reflected from this article. Here was a woman who changed her name to a non-Jewish name and then spent her whole life living like a non-Jew. This "Jewish" voice was EXTREMELY vulgar and filthy in her public performances. She desecrated the Shabbos tens of thousands of times at least. She was almost completely non-observant. She ADMITTEDLY was unfaithful to her husband on numerous occasions. Being a member of a Reform temple is not much of a redeeming factor. Her remarkable ability to maintain a face free of wrinkles into her old age was a testament to her extreme focus on externals ["I have had so much plastic surgery, when I die, I want to donate my body to tupperware"] the exact opposite of what a Jew is supposed to do and be. Her life, her two marriages, her depression [another entertainer with serious emotional problems....], everything about her was a tragedy.
Now that she is no longer here and her neshama has been returned to Hashem, we can hope that the mitzvos that she did in her lifetime, such as giving a lot of tzdaka and making people laugh, her willingness to identify as a Jew and her outspoken support of the Jewish people, should be sources of merit for her. But we must not forget that people like her should only be used as examples of what a Jew should NOT be and shame on those who published the above quoted obituary. Baruch Hashem we have countless role-models of holy Jewish women and don't need or want to take a distant tortured soul like Joan Molinsky, Meila Sima bas Meir, as an example or source of inspiration.
For Torah and spiritual inspiration, it is best to go to shiurim and the Beis Medrash. Internet Jewish content is often dumbed down, superficial and even misleading. I have seen countless example of this and hope that the reader will be more aware.
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Elul - The Beginning Of The End
Rabbi Shulman from Yutorah.org
The month of Elul occupies a special place in our religious imagination. Beginning with the first - startling - blast of the shofar on ראש חודש , to the haunting melody of הנשמה לך והגוף פעלך as we begin סליחות, it is a month that evokes a special atmosphere of חרדת הקודש, of awesome majesty.
I think people usually assume that what makes אלול special, what gives it its special nature, is that it is the month that precedes the ימים נוראים, and therefore a month of preparation for the יום הדין.
R' Yisroel Salanter showed a palpable and noticable trepidation the entire אלול. And he was asked: צי איז אלול דען א בער, is Elul then a bear? To which he replied that דוד המלך was fearless enough to have said גם את הארי ואת הדוב הכה עבדיך, even did I smite the lion and the bear without fear, yet that same דוד המלך said: סמר מפחדך בשרי וממשפטיך יראתי, my flesh crawls with fear of you, and of your judgement am I afeared.
Certainly, then, the awesomeness of אלול is related to the approach of ראש השנה and the days of דין which it brings into prospect.
But this is only half the story. The significance of אלול lies not only in the fact that it leads up to the beginning of the new year, but also - and even more fundamentally - in the fact that it is the last and concluding month of the past year.
Let me explain this:
You know, one of the saddest facts of life is that eventually everything most things go stale. The freshest, tastiest food eventually goes bad. Ideas go stale; ideas that were once new and exciting and revolutionary become, with the passage of time, boring and passe. Movements, institutions, political parties, that were once important and vital, become useless and worse. And human relationships can grow stale; it requires constant work to prevent a friendship or a marriage from becoming routine.
Even our relationship with the רבונו של עולם can grow stale.
The Torah says in פרשת דברים: כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים ונושנתם בארץ והשחתם ועשיתם פסל.. ועשיתם הרע בעיני ה'... העדותי בכם היום כי אבד תאבדון מהר מעל הארץ. The Torah fortells the process of degeneration that would eventaully lead to the חורבן. And the downward slide begins with: כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים ונושנתם בארץ; when you will have given birth to children and grandchildren, and you will have grown old in the land. To grow old in the land; what a sad image. A nation can also grow old, and tired, and forgetful of its mission. And that weariness breeds cynicism and hedonism and perverseness, and all the vices that finally destroyed the spiritual health of our people, and lost us ארץ ישראל and the מקדש.
The גמרא in גיטין points out that the value of ונושנתם is 852. The Jewish people lived in ארץ ישראל for 850 years, until the בית המקדש was first destroyed. Says the גמרא: צדקה עשה הקב"ה עם ישראל שהקדים שתי שנים לונושנתם. Had they stayed in ארץ ישראל two years longer, had that process of enervation and decline and fall gone on for two more years, then the spark that was kindled at הר סני would have ח"ו gone out completely, and there would have been nor hope left for our people. And so two years before it would have been too late הקב"ה sent us away into גלות, and thus to stop the slow insiduous decay of ונושנתם.
And this dynamic repeated itself many times throughout our history. The משך חכמה, in a very profound passage, writes that the history of גלות in miniature is this: Jews arrive on some new shore and face the challenges of rebuilding Torah and Jewish life. And we would rise to the occassion. Faced with a great challenge, we would summon up courage and invention, and rebuild Yeshivos and communal institutions, reconstitute scholarship, and establish vibrant Jewish life on this new shore. And then, when all that could be done - given the limitations of גלות - had been done, a new generation would grow up without that challenge. For them Yiddishkeit would be easy, could be taken for granted; and, since it is the nature of human perverseness to turn on that which is too easy, they would turn on Yiddihskeit. Again the sad cycle of ונושנתם. And so the השגחה would have to arrange that the Jews be driven to some new shore, where the cycle could begin again.
What is true over the broad sweep of time, hold true also within the narrow confines of a single year. Every ראש השנה is a beginning; it is ראשית שנה. And each ראש השנה we experience a certain sense of renewal. We imagine that the world is being created anew, היום הרת עולם. We are swept up in the majesty and grandeur of the day, and its evocation of קדושה ומלכות, holiness and grandeur. We are moved to our depths by the קול שופר. We try to do תשובה, and make resolutions to better ourselves during the coming year.
How much of that remains by the end of the year? How much of that resolution, of that enthusiasm, of that elevation? How little escapes the steady erosion of time, the insidious decay of ונושנתם!
The Torah describes the sweep of the year, from beginning to end, from ראש השנה to אלול, with the words: מראשית השנה עד אחרית שנה. There is a slight anomaly in the פסוק: When talking about the beginning of the year it says: מראשית השנה, the beginning of the year; but when talking of the end of the year it says: עד אחרית שנה, until the end of a year. The Satmar rebbe explained, very tellingly: At the begnning of the year with think that this is the year, השנה; this year is going to be special, this is the year that I am going to turn the corner, that I am going to really change. But by the end of the year its just שנה, another year, no different than every other.
אלול is אחרית שנה. It is the very end of the year, the furthest point from the ראשית with which the year began. That is its significance and its challenge. Because the challenge of our history is to finally overcome the decline of ונושנתם. We look forward, ultimately, to that time when הקב"ה will say to us - as those who daven נוסח ספרד say in קדושה - הן גאלתי אתכם אחרית כראשית, I have redeemed you, bringing the אחרית back to the ראשית, reversing, finally, the terrible sentence of ונושנתם.
And that is our challenge each אלול. ראש השנה is ראשית השנה. אלול is אחרית שנה. The challenge of אלול is to bring the אחרית back to the ראשית, to reconnect them, so that the year can close on the same high note with which it began.
And that is why why blow שופר each day this month - not to anticipate the שופר blowing on the ראש השנה to come, but, rather, to remember the how we blew שופר one year ago. You know how sound has the power to evoke memory. The sound of the שופר this month is meant to evoke memories in us - memories of how we stood here in shul one year ago, with the shul all bedecked in wihte. To remember how uplifted we were, how moved, how exalted. To remember how we listened in hushed silence to תקיעה, שברים, תרועה, תקיעה. To remember how we cried as we read, together with our friends and neighbors, מי יחיה ומי ימות, who will live this year and who will die; and, looking back, we now know. To remember the resolutions that we made. To remember how we said כל נדרי, hushed at first, and then in gathering crescendo. To remember the sadness of וידוי and of יזכור. To remember the joy when we stood around the חזן at the end of מוסף and sang with him: היום היום היום. To remember the feeling of promise as we wished each other גוט יאר.
That was ראשית השנה. A whole year has gone by since then, a lot of water under the bridge. But if now, at אחרית שנה, at the end of the year, we can re-engage with what we felt then, at ראשית השנה, then we can salvage the year. If we can let the sound of the שופר each morning this month remind us of what we thought and felt and resolved last ראש השנה, and infuse those feelings and memories and resolutions, that sense of קדושה, that fervor, now, at this last opportunity, into our davening and into our lives, then we can - in a small but real way - defy the seemingly inevitable decline of ונושנתם, and we will have redeemed the year, as the רבש"ע will ultimately redeem the world, saying הן גאלתי אתכם אחרית כראשית.
The month of Elul occupies a special place in our religious imagination. Beginning with the first - startling - blast of the shofar on ראש חודש , to the haunting melody of הנשמה לך והגוף פעלך as we begin סליחות, it is a month that evokes a special atmosphere of חרדת הקודש, of awesome majesty.
I think people usually assume that what makes אלול special, what gives it its special nature, is that it is the month that precedes the ימים נוראים, and therefore a month of preparation for the יום הדין.
R' Yisroel Salanter showed a palpable and noticable trepidation the entire אלול. And he was asked: צי איז אלול דען א בער, is Elul then a bear? To which he replied that דוד המלך was fearless enough to have said גם את הארי ואת הדוב הכה עבדיך, even did I smite the lion and the bear without fear, yet that same דוד המלך said: סמר מפחדך בשרי וממשפטיך יראתי, my flesh crawls with fear of you, and of your judgement am I afeared.
Certainly, then, the awesomeness of אלול is related to the approach of ראש השנה and the days of דין which it brings into prospect.
But this is only half the story. The significance of אלול lies not only in the fact that it leads up to the beginning of the new year, but also - and even more fundamentally - in the fact that it is the last and concluding month of the past year.
Let me explain this:
You know, one of the saddest facts of life is that eventually everything most things go stale. The freshest, tastiest food eventually goes bad. Ideas go stale; ideas that were once new and exciting and revolutionary become, with the passage of time, boring and passe. Movements, institutions, political parties, that were once important and vital, become useless and worse. And human relationships can grow stale; it requires constant work to prevent a friendship or a marriage from becoming routine.
Even our relationship with the רבונו של עולם can grow stale.
The Torah says in פרשת דברים: כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים ונושנתם בארץ והשחתם ועשיתם פסל.. ועשיתם הרע בעיני ה'... העדותי בכם היום כי אבד תאבדון מהר מעל הארץ. The Torah fortells the process of degeneration that would eventaully lead to the חורבן. And the downward slide begins with: כי תוליד בנים ובני בנים ונושנתם בארץ; when you will have given birth to children and grandchildren, and you will have grown old in the land. To grow old in the land; what a sad image. A nation can also grow old, and tired, and forgetful of its mission. And that weariness breeds cynicism and hedonism and perverseness, and all the vices that finally destroyed the spiritual health of our people, and lost us ארץ ישראל and the מקדש.
The גמרא in גיטין points out that the value of ונושנתם is 852. The Jewish people lived in ארץ ישראל for 850 years, until the בית המקדש was first destroyed. Says the גמרא: צדקה עשה הקב"ה עם ישראל שהקדים שתי שנים לונושנתם. Had they stayed in ארץ ישראל two years longer, had that process of enervation and decline and fall gone on for two more years, then the spark that was kindled at הר סני would have ח"ו gone out completely, and there would have been nor hope left for our people. And so two years before it would have been too late הקב"ה sent us away into גלות, and thus to stop the slow insiduous decay of ונושנתם.
And this dynamic repeated itself many times throughout our history. The משך חכמה, in a very profound passage, writes that the history of גלות in miniature is this: Jews arrive on some new shore and face the challenges of rebuilding Torah and Jewish life. And we would rise to the occassion. Faced with a great challenge, we would summon up courage and invention, and rebuild Yeshivos and communal institutions, reconstitute scholarship, and establish vibrant Jewish life on this new shore. And then, when all that could be done - given the limitations of גלות - had been done, a new generation would grow up without that challenge. For them Yiddishkeit would be easy, could be taken for granted; and, since it is the nature of human perverseness to turn on that which is too easy, they would turn on Yiddihskeit. Again the sad cycle of ונושנתם. And so the השגחה would have to arrange that the Jews be driven to some new shore, where the cycle could begin again.
What is true over the broad sweep of time, hold true also within the narrow confines of a single year. Every ראש השנה is a beginning; it is ראשית שנה. And each ראש השנה we experience a certain sense of renewal. We imagine that the world is being created anew, היום הרת עולם. We are swept up in the majesty and grandeur of the day, and its evocation of קדושה ומלכות, holiness and grandeur. We are moved to our depths by the קול שופר. We try to do תשובה, and make resolutions to better ourselves during the coming year.
How much of that remains by the end of the year? How much of that resolution, of that enthusiasm, of that elevation? How little escapes the steady erosion of time, the insidious decay of ונושנתם!
The Torah describes the sweep of the year, from beginning to end, from ראש השנה to אלול, with the words: מראשית השנה עד אחרית שנה. There is a slight anomaly in the פסוק: When talking about the beginning of the year it says: מראשית השנה, the beginning of the year; but when talking of the end of the year it says: עד אחרית שנה, until the end of a year. The Satmar rebbe explained, very tellingly: At the begnning of the year with think that this is the year, השנה; this year is going to be special, this is the year that I am going to turn the corner, that I am going to really change. But by the end of the year its just שנה, another year, no different than every other.
אלול is אחרית שנה. It is the very end of the year, the furthest point from the ראשית with which the year began. That is its significance and its challenge. Because the challenge of our history is to finally overcome the decline of ונושנתם. We look forward, ultimately, to that time when הקב"ה will say to us - as those who daven נוסח ספרד say in קדושה - הן גאלתי אתכם אחרית כראשית, I have redeemed you, bringing the אחרית back to the ראשית, reversing, finally, the terrible sentence of ונושנתם.
And that is our challenge each אלול. ראש השנה is ראשית השנה. אלול is אחרית שנה. The challenge of אלול is to bring the אחרית back to the ראשית, to reconnect them, so that the year can close on the same high note with which it began.
And that is why why blow שופר each day this month - not to anticipate the שופר blowing on the ראש השנה to come, but, rather, to remember the how we blew שופר one year ago. You know how sound has the power to evoke memory. The sound of the שופר this month is meant to evoke memories in us - memories of how we stood here in shul one year ago, with the shul all bedecked in wihte. To remember how uplifted we were, how moved, how exalted. To remember how we listened in hushed silence to תקיעה, שברים, תרועה, תקיעה. To remember how we cried as we read, together with our friends and neighbors, מי יחיה ומי ימות, who will live this year and who will die; and, looking back, we now know. To remember the resolutions that we made. To remember how we said כל נדרי, hushed at first, and then in gathering crescendo. To remember the sadness of וידוי and of יזכור. To remember the joy when we stood around the חזן at the end of מוסף and sang with him: היום היום היום. To remember the feeling of promise as we wished each other גוט יאר.
That was ראשית השנה. A whole year has gone by since then, a lot of water under the bridge. But if now, at אחרית שנה, at the end of the year, we can re-engage with what we felt then, at ראשית השנה, then we can salvage the year. If we can let the sound of the שופר each morning this month remind us of what we thought and felt and resolved last ראש השנה, and infuse those feelings and memories and resolutions, that sense of קדושה, that fervor, now, at this last opportunity, into our davening and into our lives, then we can - in a small but real way - defy the seemingly inevitable decline of ונושנתם, and we will have redeemed the year, as the רבש"ע will ultimately redeem the world, saying הן גאלתי אתכם אחרית כראשית.
Saturday, September 6, 2014
Learning To Listen
In my lifetime, I have probably met tens of thousands of people. I have conducted countless conversations. Here is a quality that I have met almost nobody who possesses.
The ability to LISTEN.
Am I implying that everybody is deaf? Hardly.
What I mean is as follows....
EVERYBODY has a unique way of viewing life. This is a result of natural inclinations, life-experiences, education, surroundings, parents etc. etc. To listen is to MEET THE OTHER PERSON ON HIS OR HER TURF. It is to step out of one's shoes and try to really "hear" where the other person is coming from. When the other person utters a sentence, one is NOT to immediately [as we ALL do] refract what they are saying through the lense of one's own being, but rather to try to experience who that other person is, how they feel and what makes them tick.
This is a critical point when relating to .... women and children. A woman is not a man [BIG CHIDDUSH]. The mistake men make is relating to women as men with high pitched voices. It is so rare for a man to meet a woman on her terms precisely because he can't possibly imagine what it is like to have a female brain and psyche. [A woman, in turn, cannot possibly fully understand a man. Try explaining to a woman that a playoff game is as important as life itself.....:-)].
When a guest comes over and the house is a bit messy, not only am I not bothered but I don't even notice. I cannot count the number of times I have been to people's houses and the woman of the house profusely apologizes for the "terrible mess". It is a different way of looking at the world and must be accepted and even embraced.
Children are not adults in smaller bodies. Children have underdeveloped brains, or better, developing brains, and a different way of viewing life. A parent must LEARN his children and embrace who they are and where they are holding.
One should certainly criticize others when it is constructive and necessary. The sina qua non is to fully understand the person before voicing criticism. We are so quick to express our educated opinions on many different matters without fully grasping the reality of the parties or issues involved. The only way the criticism will be accepted is if the person feels understood. It seems to me that in 99 percent of all instances, this is not the case.
Nu - an avoda for Elul. Listen, validate, accept, absorb, be fully engaged. In yiddishkeit we call those qualities "Bein Adam La-chaveiro".
The ability to LISTEN.
Am I implying that everybody is deaf? Hardly.
What I mean is as follows....
EVERYBODY has a unique way of viewing life. This is a result of natural inclinations, life-experiences, education, surroundings, parents etc. etc. To listen is to MEET THE OTHER PERSON ON HIS OR HER TURF. It is to step out of one's shoes and try to really "hear" where the other person is coming from. When the other person utters a sentence, one is NOT to immediately [as we ALL do] refract what they are saying through the lense of one's own being, but rather to try to experience who that other person is, how they feel and what makes them tick.
This is a critical point when relating to .... women and children. A woman is not a man [BIG CHIDDUSH]. The mistake men make is relating to women as men with high pitched voices. It is so rare for a man to meet a woman on her terms precisely because he can't possibly imagine what it is like to have a female brain and psyche. [A woman, in turn, cannot possibly fully understand a man. Try explaining to a woman that a playoff game is as important as life itself.....:-)].
When a guest comes over and the house is a bit messy, not only am I not bothered but I don't even notice. I cannot count the number of times I have been to people's houses and the woman of the house profusely apologizes for the "terrible mess". It is a different way of looking at the world and must be accepted and even embraced.
Children are not adults in smaller bodies. Children have underdeveloped brains, or better, developing brains, and a different way of viewing life. A parent must LEARN his children and embrace who they are and where they are holding.
One should certainly criticize others when it is constructive and necessary. The sina qua non is to fully understand the person before voicing criticism. We are so quick to express our educated opinions on many different matters without fully grasping the reality of the parties or issues involved. The only way the criticism will be accepted is if the person feels understood. It seems to me that in 99 percent of all instances, this is not the case.
Nu - an avoda for Elul. Listen, validate, accept, absorb, be fully engaged. In yiddishkeit we call those qualities "Bein Adam La-chaveiro".
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Entering A Church - Rabbinic Responsibility
A number of years ago there was a Rabbi of a well known congregation in Manhattan who joined in a prayer service in a church for President Obama. He received a lot of heat for his actions whereupon he wrote an email explaining that what he did was halachically mandated.
Today I came across an interesting tshuva of Rav Asher Weiss where he was asked his opinion on the matter. He started by saying that the Rabbi was absolutely wrong in going without asking a shyla first. Meaning, not every Rabbi is such a big talmid chochom and when they are faced with throny questions they should ask a greater authority for a psak. R' Asher was also not impressed with this Rabbi's defense of his actions which he said have no טעם וריח - taste or smell, and it was just a bunch of גיבובי דברים nonsensical words designed to defend his questionable behavior against his many attackers.
Rabbis are not Popes and are one hundred percent prone to criticism even more than the average layman, due to their position as examples for the community at large. The greatness of the halachic system is that every opinioin may be challenged if one follows the rules and strictures of halachic discourse [wide knowledge, precedent, sharp analysis etc.]. Certainly a grade b or c rabbi must be careful to consult with greater authorities before publicly acting in questionable ways.
Then R' Asher got down to business and discussed the essential question of the permissibilty of entering a church and partaking in a prayer service. R' Asher exhibited his trademark clarity, depth and breadth. He is geshmak. That is why he goes to places like Teaneck and the Five Towns and they eat him up despite his Charedi outlook and dress. His emes prevails.....
The prohibition against entering a church is only a rabbinic one, opening the door for leniency in cases where the absence of the Jew might lead to enmity. There is an opinion in the Rishonim that one may not even enter a church in cases of pikuach nefesh but the shulchan aruch doesn't rule that way. One must also consider that the reason for the rabbinic prohibition is that one might be suspected of serving their idols but in an instance when it is obvious that one is there just to show respect then the suspicion wouldn't be a concern. So if absolutely necessary there is room to be lenient.
However, one may not under any circumstances actually daven there. Here is the original for the scholarly amongst you. See also Marrrrrannnnnnn in the Yabia Omer [2/11] and the other sources quoted there.
My own, supra-halachic take.
You think the Chofetz Chaim would go to church to attend the wedding of the son of Prince Charles or for a mincha with Baracki?? The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. The church for me represents two thousand years of Jew hatred, a place of impurity and avoda zara [one of the three cardinal sins for which one must die, although R' Rabinovich of the Maalei Adumim Yeshiva, feels that b'zamn hazeh they don't really believe in the trinity anymore as real gods]. I think that a shul or beis medrash is a better place for a Jew to be.... Certain things might be strictly permitted but are still "pas nicht" - inappropriate.
Today I came across an interesting tshuva of Rav Asher Weiss where he was asked his opinion on the matter. He started by saying that the Rabbi was absolutely wrong in going without asking a shyla first. Meaning, not every Rabbi is such a big talmid chochom and when they are faced with throny questions they should ask a greater authority for a psak. R' Asher was also not impressed with this Rabbi's defense of his actions which he said have no טעם וריח - taste or smell, and it was just a bunch of גיבובי דברים nonsensical words designed to defend his questionable behavior against his many attackers.
Rabbis are not Popes and are one hundred percent prone to criticism even more than the average layman, due to their position as examples for the community at large. The greatness of the halachic system is that every opinioin may be challenged if one follows the rules and strictures of halachic discourse [wide knowledge, precedent, sharp analysis etc.]. Certainly a grade b or c rabbi must be careful to consult with greater authorities before publicly acting in questionable ways.
Then R' Asher got down to business and discussed the essential question of the permissibilty of entering a church and partaking in a prayer service. R' Asher exhibited his trademark clarity, depth and breadth. He is geshmak. That is why he goes to places like Teaneck and the Five Towns and they eat him up despite his Charedi outlook and dress. His emes prevails.....
The prohibition against entering a church is only a rabbinic one, opening the door for leniency in cases where the absence of the Jew might lead to enmity. There is an opinion in the Rishonim that one may not even enter a church in cases of pikuach nefesh but the shulchan aruch doesn't rule that way. One must also consider that the reason for the rabbinic prohibition is that one might be suspected of serving their idols but in an instance when it is obvious that one is there just to show respect then the suspicion wouldn't be a concern. So if absolutely necessary there is room to be lenient.
However, one may not under any circumstances actually daven there. Here is the original for the scholarly amongst you. See also Marrrrrannnnnnn in the Yabia Omer [2/11] and the other sources quoted there.
My own, supra-halachic take.
You think the Chofetz Chaim would go to church to attend the wedding of the son of Prince Charles or for a mincha with Baracki?? The whole thing makes me uncomfortable. The church for me represents two thousand years of Jew hatred, a place of impurity and avoda zara [one of the three cardinal sins for which one must die, although R' Rabinovich of the Maalei Adumim Yeshiva, feels that b'zamn hazeh they don't really believe in the trinity anymore as real gods]. I think that a shul or beis medrash is a better place for a Jew to be.... Certain things might be strictly permitted but are still "pas nicht" - inappropriate.
New Shiurim
So many shiurim have been posted recently as a hachana for the BIG DAYS AHEAD!
Some links: Iyun on meseches Rosh Hashana, here, here, here and here. Hopefully these shiurim will give you not only an understanding of the gemaras discussed but a general approach to learning.
Pachad Yitzchak on Rosh Hashana: Here, here, here, and here.
If you listen and comprehend - your soul and mind will hopefully go on fire.....:-)
Some links: Iyun on meseches Rosh Hashana, here, here, here and here. Hopefully these shiurim will give you not only an understanding of the gemaras discussed but a general approach to learning.
Pachad Yitzchak on Rosh Hashana: Here, here, here, and here.
If you listen and comprehend - your soul and mind will hopefully go on fire.....:-)
Tuesday, September 2, 2014
The Heter Of Baalah Ba-Ir
Some time ago on the blog we had a series on the halachos of yichud that are oh-so critical in our crazy generation.
There is a halacha that if a wife's husband is in town then she is allowed to seclude herself with a man, known as בעלה בעיר [see the end of maseches kiddushin]. What does it mean in the same town? Let us say that the wife is in one city and the husband is NEXT DOOR but officially in a different town, is that considered בעלה בעיר because they are so close and that is enough to prevent anything inappropriate or no, since they are officially in different cities, seclusion is forbidden.
The Chazon Ish paskened that yichud is forbidden in such an instance. Hence, if one is in Bnei Brak and his wife is next door in Ramat Gan - yichud is forbidden. If one is on Woodmere and his wife is next door in what is officially considered Cederhurst, yichud is forbidden.
Paradoxically, if one is at one end of the city and his wife at the other end then yichud would be permitted.
[Maaseh Ish 5 page 113]
I must note that this heter of בעלה בעיר is subject to debate whether it is a heter lichatchila or merely bi-dieved but should be avoided.
There is a halacha that if a wife's husband is in town then she is allowed to seclude herself with a man, known as בעלה בעיר [see the end of maseches kiddushin]. What does it mean in the same town? Let us say that the wife is in one city and the husband is NEXT DOOR but officially in a different town, is that considered בעלה בעיר because they are so close and that is enough to prevent anything inappropriate or no, since they are officially in different cities, seclusion is forbidden.
The Chazon Ish paskened that yichud is forbidden in such an instance. Hence, if one is in Bnei Brak and his wife is next door in Ramat Gan - yichud is forbidden. If one is on Woodmere and his wife is next door in what is officially considered Cederhurst, yichud is forbidden.
Paradoxically, if one is at one end of the city and his wife at the other end then yichud would be permitted.
[Maaseh Ish 5 page 113]
I must note that this heter of בעלה בעיר is subject to debate whether it is a heter lichatchila or merely bi-dieved but should be avoided.
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