A Special Bar Mitzvah
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I swiped this photo from the Orthodox Union. I hope they and the Neumark family don’t mind.
The OU writes,
When Jacob Zvi Neumark became Bar Mitzvah earlier this month at Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, he was not interested in enriching his bank account with gifts. Rather, he was interested in doing good works. As a result, he and his parents, Susan and Avery Neumark, made a special contribution to the Edward M. Adler Memorial Scholarship Fund, established in memory of Jacob’s uncle by the OU‘s NCSY youth program, an organization that Mr. Adler generously supported. Jacob also asked his guests to make a contribution to the Fund.
The proceeds will be used to enable a teenager with disabilities – a participant in the OU’s Yachad program for the learning and developmentally disabled – to attend an NCSY summer program in Israel. Thus, two of the OU’s significant programs for youth — NCSY and Yachad — combine their efforts, with a big assist from the Neumark family.
Jacob is clearly a uniquely empathetic and generous young man. I can’t say it is a surprise to see such things happening at the founding congregation of American Jewry…but it sure is nice that they are.
Shearith Israel, of course, is also one of the founding member congregations of the OU. It is good to see Rabbi Weinreb there, clearly schepping nachas from the occasion.
Not much to say here…I just found this whole situation quite moving.
26 comments
Tool.
a positive post that has something to do with ncsy? Did the fast make you sick DK?
Fran, don’t be silly. I don’t fast on the minor fast days!
of course not…G-d forbid you share in the suffering of your people. Its all about you here and now!
you celebrate the good past but refuse to mourn the bad. How very…convenient lol
Oh, Fran…I mourn the past.
We should have a mourning day for when Bais Shammai forced Bais Hillel (by sword) to accept the 18 gazeras (decrees) including heavy anti-gentile legislation, and they should all be repealed. Each and every one.
But we Middle Easterners just can’t say violence and force doesn’t pay. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It becomes holy tradition instead.
Mourn that, Fran. Mourn that Jews accept and accepted violence as a means to defeating Bais Hillel, and that the threat of violence was considered an acceptable way to achieve anti-gentile legislation which the Jewish people and Bais Hillel wanted nothing to do with.
Now, this is more like it!
interesting i never heard about that. Im not saying your wrong, but where did u hear that from (im big into the sources).
Oh and im a firm believer that violence does pay
Yerushalmi Shabbat 1:4
Bais Hillel called it the darkest day since the Golden Calf. Look it up — you’ll see.
Look how the violence is alluded to by the frummies, and look how these gazeras are never the less considered “irreversible.”
From Torah.org
“(b) Regarding these 18 gezerot, R. Yohanan declares that “even if Eliyahu (the prophet) and his court would come (and try to annul one of them), we would pay no heed. This is evidently based on the tremendous vigor with which these gezerot were passed. The Bavli records one version of the passions evoked in the court on that day - but the Yerushalmi (Shabbat 1:4) has a much stronger version. In any case, these 18 gezerot are irreversible, even by a greater court - so how did R. Yehuda haNassi annul the “oil” decree?”
In Judaism, we have absolute precedent that the far-right can get its way through violent intimidation.
http://www.torah.org/learning/.....ks4.8.html
i know what u r talking about….but i see NO NO NO source indicating that “Bais Shammai forced Bais Hillel (by sword) to accept the 18 gazeras (decrees”
The Yerushalmi Talmud, Fran. Shabbat 1:4. It’s there, Fran. Look it up.
By the sword, Fran.
Um, DK, with all due respect, you do not have the skills to have learned this yourself directly from the Yerushalmi. So what is your secondary source? Maybe you can share that with your fellow amaratzim?
Ron,
Read the sugyah. Get back to me.
Sorry, DK. I don’t have a Yerushalmi in the house, and unlike you I won’t pretend that I do. I am calling “BS” on you here!
I read the English edition at the library. Yes, it does exist.
Ron,
I have been a friend of DK’s for a few years now, and I can tell you that regardless of his views/feelings, he spent years learning Torah.
Saying something such as, “I don’t have a Yerushalmi in the house, and unlike you I won’t pretend that I do” is unlike you, and I was surprised to see you write it. It is childish and petulant, coming from an angry, threatened angle.
DK may not be shtyging away like in the past but he has a sharp mind for history.
And DK may be many things, but one thing he is not, is a pretender.
I think he pretends to be a non-Zionist when in his heart he has a small flame burning for Israel.
Jenny, DK more or less acknowledges that he hasn’t really seen this sugya inside, having read “the English version,” i.e., having seen a translation without the benefit of meforshim. That doesn’t mean he’s wrong, by the way; I just want to make sure we all understand the “level” we’re operating at.
I won’t respond to your unintentionally ironic accusations against me. DK and I know exactly what we’re debating here. And now that he’s thrown down the gauntlet, if somewhat less than definitively, I’ll sooner or later do my own homework and see what the heck he’s talking about!
Maybe he’s right, after all!
Good Shabbos!
“without the benefit of meforshim”
Allhumdililah, most english versions of the yerushalmi nowadays have the english in them. I’ve been fucking around with a Y. Brachos lately, and i’m shocked, SHOCKED by what I find in there.
the power of violence to enforce conformity is the original sin of religion and state. exceptions?
Yes it’s very nice that the bar mitzvah boy will give a lot of tzedakah in this case. If you are a Shabbat goer to Spanish and Portuguese you and your family likely have a ton of money already.
Will that happen to me if I go to Spanish and Portugese or does the ton of money happen in some other way?
The Yerushalmi section is online at this great site:
http://www.mechon-mamre.org/b/r/r2101.htm
Read it and weep - or at least, you should. Would you recognize your Judaism if it was much easier to keep kosher, and many more people could and would do so? Without those Gezeroth, it would be exactly that, and basically all milk, bread, cheese, wine, would be considered kosher and there would be no concerns about who was involved in the preparation of baked/cooked food.
I doubt that I would even recognize who was Jewish.
The question is, would you consider ANYONE Jewish that lived such a life? You should, because it was a normative Jew’s life without those absurd added restrictions. Judaism doesn’t have to be hard; we make it that way.
I guess one of the differences between you and me, Neo, is I don’t consider the Sages of the Mishna “we.” I consider their wisdom far greater than mine, and their enactments not only not absurd, but divinely inspired. I guess that makes me an orthodox Jew!
Anyway that was not exactly DK’s point nor the fulcrum of my debate with him just now — rather, it was whether in fact the gezeros in question were adopted at the point of the sword. Your link is not helpful to me because not only is my ability to make a leining on a Yerushalmi dubious at best, but there is no Rashi, much less other meforshim. I do promise to report back on this, [as if] if anyone cares!
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