Posts from — June 2008

Dark Light’s Rabbi Weinbach learned from Korach that democracy is not a good thing. Not a good thing at all. You know who should be in charge? The Gedolim! The Gedolim should be ruling the State of Israel.

Rabbi Weinbach, the dean of Ohr Somayach, writes,

One of the greatest dangers to civilization in general, and to the Jewish People in particular, is the delusion that populism will solve all the problems of mankind[...] For the Jewish people Torah leadership is the indispensable element of their existence. There is no place in the world for a demagogue who attempts to undermine that authority. This is why the Heavenly punishment for Korach and his cohorts was sinking into the earth and vanishing from human sight.

It is to be hoped that this will be a lesson for all those who refuse to accept the authority of our Torah leaders whose guidance alone can secure Israel forever.

Yes…the Gedolim should be in charge of the State of Israel. True freedom is submission to the Gedolim.

Their will be done.

Update: Halfsours weighs in.

One of the ways fundamentalist groups show just how radical they are is by playing expert in fields they have no expertise in.

Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair writes on Ohr Somayach’s front page:

Our age is unique in its inability to concentrate on anything for very long. We even have a medical name for it: ADD and ADD/HDD. Whether these conditions have always existed or whether they are specific to our age is debatable, however there is an unmistakable synchronicity between the acceleration of cutting rates in film and television and the upsurge of ADD syndrome.

Rabbi Sinclair did not bother to source this. Why not?

Of course, nothing would be fit for Dark Light without an over-the-top “them versus us” conclusion, with ONLY the haredi mentality as the positive and healthy one.

A person can relate to the present in one of two ways: as the most fleeting thing in existence, a will-o-the-wisp, an un-catchable frame in the movie of one’s life; or one can see the present as an unpolished diamond waiting to be turned into eternity.

The syntax of film, the language of our age, encourages the perception that the future and the past are not realities; all that exists is a constant stream of “now.”

From the Jewish view, however, success in life is measured by how much of the present we can turn into future before it becomes the past.

Leaving aside the silliness of this Manichean framing (and it is very silly, isn’t it?), Dark Light is lying. Dark Light does not seek to turn the present into the future…Dark Light, like many B’nai Torah fundamentalists, uses the present to mourn a past that was never a reality.

Rabbi Hirsch not frum enough for Daas Toyrah.

The Jewish Press reports,

Speaking at the 200th birthday celebration of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch this past Shabbos, Khal Adath Jeshurun’s Rav Yisroel Mantel declared that the philosophical credo of Rav Hirsch, Torah Im Derech Eretz, is not viable in the absence of its chief advocate.

Rav Hirsch was a 19th century champion of Orthodoxy and the founder of Khal Adath Jeshurun’s parent community in Frankfurt, Germany.

Rav Mantel’s declaration, which angered many in the community, came at a sit-down kiddush at Dr. Raphael Moller Hall in Washington Heights after Shabbos morning services. He said that only Rav Hirsch, a great man who knew the fine boundaries between what is religiously permissible and what is prohibited, could make Torah Im Derech Eretz workable.

Our generation, he said, must follow today’s gedolei HaTorah (great Torah leaders).

After Shabbos, Dr. Eric Erlbach, KAJ president for over two decades, resigned.

Stupid Yekkes. You scorned Yeshiva University all these years for this shit? Now they will be just another dime a dozen community of dysfunctional heimeshes.

Ron Coleman has taken me to task for suggesting that rabbis don’t have a right to act as experts outside of those usually designated for rabbis.

Truth is, he is correct. The bigger the rabbi, the wider his areas of expertise.

Take the Chazzon Ish. He is widely attributed to have understood the best way to perform a brain surgery for one of his peeps. How do I know this? It’s in a “biography” I read about him once, and its all over the net. Everyone knows this happened. Can you prove it didn’t happen? So, it’s my word against yours. I believe in the Gedoylim. Shouldn’t you believe in the Gedoylim?

Do you know the story of how the Chazzon Ish once mapped out and detailed, for a doctor, how to conduct a particular [sic] invasive brain surgery? This doesn’t mean that all “gedolim” are out of place (or better yet their element of expertise) when they rule on science/medical issues, but some have the Siyata D’Shmaya and have proven it.

Wow! Of course they have! What a very big godol the Chazon Ish was! You see, when you are that big, you understand secular studies like brain surgery even without studying it directly.

This nonsense is believed by so many that Rabbi Gil Student felt it necessary to write that he doesn’t believe it happened.

One of the wonderful things about haredism is that it gives you advice on aspects of your life that in a previous state, you would not have dreamed of asking a rabbi.

In this week’s “Ask.” Rabbi Mendel Weinbach, the dean of Ohr Somayach, fields an important spiritual question:

Question: It often happens that the telephone in my home rings after I have already retired for the night. I am sorely tempted to answer the call because it may be an emergency and am almost always disappointed to learn that the caller is merely some “late bird” who is calling about some non-urgent matter without considering that most people are already asleep. What is the right thing to do?

Tough one, right? Well, fortunately, daas Toyrah is here to help this poor bastard through his existential crisis.

Rabbi Weinbach answers:

Answer: Since people have different schedules for going to sleep there is no way of expecting everyone to have the consideration you believe is appropriate.

Perhaps the best solution is to introduce this note to the message on your answering machine:

“If you are calling after (whichever hour you choose) I am unable to answer because I have already retired for the night. If your call is of an urgent nature please ring again upon completion of this message and I will try to answer. Otherwise please save your call until tomorrow (indicate hours you are available) when I will be happy to speak with you.”

The fact that this man is answering these types of questions demonstrates how invasive Dark Light and haredi-kiruv is in the lives of their students.

A Reform, Conservative, or Modern Orthodox site would never post this under an “Ask the Rabbi” column, because it isn’t a normal thing to bring to a rabbi.

But Dark Light/Neve Yerushalayim and haredi-kiruv generally is exceptionally invasive, and attempts to control their recruit’s behavior far outside of the sphere of ritual.

Whenever it comes to the interesting information about, say, the convicted criminal who tortured and raped a young Columbia University journalism student for 19 hours (and slashed her eyelids), I have certain questions. Certain…curiosities.

The Times doesn’t like to mention these details.

B”H, however, there is the NY Post.

Our frum friend Ron Coleman wrote a piece on Beyond BT (the baal teshuvah blog) called “Considerations When Taking on New Chumras,” about whether one “should or should not consider personal pleasure and desire when making those choices.” As an emblematic example (not meant for specific discussion) Ron mentioned the stringency of only consuming cholov yisroel products, dairy products produced from a cow that was milked under Jewish supervision (some very pious Jews do not trust a gentile to milk a cow, and apparently, this makes them holier yidden).

Of course, some flamers came out for this one.

EPA18 wrote,

A friend of yours in your community was once in the apartment of the late Rabbi Shimon Schwab, ztl. When Rov Schwab heard that the individual did not keep cholov yisroel he became quite agitated, and asked “How could you not keep cholov yisroel!!!” Surely, Rov Schwab knew all about Reb Moshe’s position on the issue. But times had changed, and the easy availability of cholov yisroel products in the New York area no doubt caused Rov Schwab to believe that Reb Moshe might have held differently nowadays, at least for those in the NY/NJ area.

Wait. There’s more. Ready?

Surely the individual involved enjoyed his haagen-dazs at the time, but he did change and ever since has been keeping cholov yisroel. We all made sacrifices on our way to becoming frum. But how often do you stop and think (at this point), “Boy, what I would do right now for a good lobster bisque?” It’s probably the same with taking on something like cholov yisroel. With the passage of time, the desire for non-cholov yisroel products wanes, especially when you - Ron - have a wonderful kosher supermarket in your town, which carries numerous cholov yisroel products, the quality of which, over the years, has definitely improved.

So at that point, as I am sure you can imagine, I was all ready to throw away all my mezuzas own “cholov stam” products -– and fuck it, my TV too, and I don’t even have cable — when Ron, who brought this whole issue up in the first place, and “cholov yisroel” as a neutral – no judgments, “what do you think?” example, wrote,

My personal experience, frankly, is that CY products are really overpriced and the milk goes sour as soon as I open it. I felt that I was being exploited during a certain period when I endeavored to buy CY where it was available even though I was not strict about the matter. I decided to stop being exploited.

So I guess Ron’s point – since he brought it up, and since he brought up CY as the emblematic example of stringencies as well…is that chumras are stupid and exploitive.

Look at those half-naked sluts waving their bare feet around shamelessly…I can’t believe what the younger generation thinks is normal. This is all due to western influence and Zionist corruption.

Picture courtesy of the Jewish Daily Forward

The ADL is using the same tools to address vicious African-Muslim gang violence as they do to denounce prominent genteel WASP slips of the tongue.

The situation makes ADL’s Abe Foxman “sad.” He recognizes that Sarkozy (the most pro-Jewish French president since Léon Blum) is concerned and committed to “fight” anti-Semitism, and is obviously proud the ADL has been calling for just that, but seems oblivious that his policy of press releases and condemnations isn’t doing dick.

Instead, the ADL remains one of the most egregious supporters of continued mass immigration to any community, and is one of the worst revisionist promoters this side of Aish HaTorah.

It is the ADL who first published this nonsense that U.S. is “A Nation of Immigrants.” In fact, the U.S. was founded by SETTLERS. And just so you know, when Africans were brought over against their will chained to a boat, that also isn’t “immigration” either. Sorry, liberal Jew people.

Jewish groups reference the ADL book authored by Kennedy as if it were a neutral outside source. It is not. Jews have no right to deny American history like this. It’s funny as well, because it denies our own history in the U.S. We first landed here in 1654. But I guess Joe Ashkenazi does not care. He is too busy building Holocaust museums to read about stuff that far back.

The ADL republished this book in order to continue promoting this absurd myth. They will do nothing to stop this country from absorbing millions of Muslims from the most brutal corners of Africa and the Middle East.

The ADL is a major part of the problem for world and American Jewry. They ADL should condemn themselves, send out a press release about how they are disappointed in their own behavior, and demand that everyone prove their sensitivity to Jewish and American issues by denouncing them.

Apparently, Chabad Midtown’s dinner honoree, Lapo Elkann, was a no-show at Chabad Midtown’s twelfth annual dinner at Cipriani’s.

Heeb gleefully notes that Elkann once had “a gnarly cocaine overdose after partying with Italian transsexuals.”

Note to self: Must party at Chabad Midtown.