kvetch \KVECH\, intransitive verb: To complain habitually. noun: 1. A complaint 2. A habitual complainer.

Remember how I wrote an article for Jewschool about how baalei teshuvahs are considered almost a separate lower class than regular FFB Jews because their parents did not go to the mikvah? Remember how all the frummies — including our frum friends from Beyond BT and an op-ed from Rabbi Shafran — suggested that my insistence that there was a stigma over this (so-called) Ben Niddah issue was at the very least being greatly exaggerated and that the facile denials by the “Gedolim” of character flaws and defects listed in the Talmud were enough?

Well, Rabbi Horowitz, a major force for improvement in the frum world has posted a letter describing how a child of Baal Teshuvas is actually harassed for this very issue (among others). I say it is for this very issue, since a pet name in the bulling process is for the other kids to actually call him, “Ben Niddah.”

Although, from the beginning, their child encountered some minor problems in school, when he entered the fourth grade, “the roof fell in.” According to the parents, he was taunted mercilessly and ostracized by his classmates, who often called him horrible names.

“Ben Nida was a favorite,” the father said, referring to the fact that, because the parents were BTs, the child was accused of being conceived without regard to the laws of family purity, a mortal insult in the hareidi world. “That name they could only have heard from their parents at home.”

I have stated before that those liberal Jews and converts who enter the haredi world risk entering a quasi-caste system, particularly those from modest backgrounds.

I stand by my assertions.

I invite Rabbi Horowitz, Aish HaTorah, and Beyond BT to join me in discouraging liberal and secular Jews and converts from joining your ultra-Orthodox ranks. Do the right thing, and admit that the black hat world is simply no more welcoming to outsiders than it is appropriate.

Do it for the children like little “Ben Nida.”

Related: Rabbi Harry Maryles’ “Second Class Citizens“

The three weeks–from the 17th of Tammuz to the 9th of Av — is considered a mourning period in the Jewish calendar. Even in the frummest circles, people give a least a little lip service to the idea that maybe it isn’t all about whose beard is the longest and whose head covering is the most correct. But the truth is, you can’t really talk to these people today. All messages are interpreted to mean more stringency and intolerance. The ongoing competition of who can out-frum who is perhaps the greatest pissing contest in modern Jewish history. The competition is often fierce, and there’s no need for that, because their are so many winners in this wonderful contest, and always new and ever more meshugeh contests for the ultra-Orthodox to compete in.

And of course, for there to be so many winners within the heimeshe communities, well, there have to be some outsiders to contrast with, don’t there? And who within their communities are better candidates to excoriate for not keeping up than the lowly baal teshuva, or even better…the convert.

True, the Torah demands we are kind to the stranger, and the stranger often means the convert.

But like so many of the mishputim (rational laws), this does not interest all of the haredim. They have better things to worry about. They treat converts and potential concerts like dirt. They treat converts the way a merchant treats a known shoplifter when he enters his store.

Nancy’s story–to be published in serial form on The Kvetcher this week–is the story of a woman who went to Israel to reconnect with her own hidden Jewish heritage. Tragically, she has been treated in a manner that shocking in its contempt.

Shocking, but not surprising.

Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein of Cross-Currents is not very happy about the Jerusalem Post’s article, “You’ve been Aish’d.” He claims that it “alternates between silliness and shallowness.”

Intriguingly, Adlerstein writes,

The author makes it clear that she believes that the claims of Orthodoxy have some facial appeal, but nothing rigorous to back them up, and then proceeds to pen many declarative sentences – with nothing to back them up. Perhaps she was more influenced by her kiruv experience than she realizes.

Huh. It seems Adlerstein actually is well aware of the pitfalls of kiruv. So what’s the problem, Rabbi Adlerstein?

Orthodoxy “fails to acknowledge that Halacha has had a variety of interpretations across different times and cultures.” Gosh. Guilty as charged. I have failed to tell newcomers that some people don’t brok on Pesach. I guess we are even, though. The author doesn’t tell the reader that in all those different times and cultures, at least in the last two thousand years, all the differences concerned how to observe halacha, not whether to observe it, which is the issue for Jews outside of Orthodoxy.

This is a grotesque attempt at glossing over a very real and serious problem in the ultra-Orthodox kiruv world. Do not be fooled by Adlerstein’s feigned outrage. I was there. Many of these places often view Modern Orthodoxy as the primary theological enemy. This is not a phenomenon limited to ultra-Orthodox Judaism, either. As I learned in Dr. Heilman’s class, “Comparative Fundamentalisms,” all fundamentalist movements in the Abrahamatic faiths view their respective traditional religious communities as their primary rivals, even though the fundamentalist strains are in fact, the new and different paradigms. The traditional communities challenge and in fact, contradict their revisionism.

This is the reason that Rabbi Shafran of the Agudath Israel and others yell and scream that there is no such thing as “ultra-Orthodox.” This is not to feign unity, but rather, to insist that THEY are the regular Orthodox. It is to suggest — through name — that it is the Modern Orthodox who have shifted in paradigm, while they have not.

And this is simply not true.

As is customary in these circles, sex drives are blamed as the primary – perhaps only – reason for not being haredi. The headline for this essay, “Hormonal Judaism,“ is revealingly, and Adlerstein writes,

In other words, at the core of Judaism is the mind leading the heart, not the reverse. There is always room for disagreement, but I will take the Judaism of the mind and soul over hormonal Judaism.

That’s right, Rabbi Adlerstein. Mind = fahfrumpt, or you are clearly merely following your hormones.

Adlerstein is saying the same thing as Big Aish’s boner rabbi, advocating what we should call the hormonal straw man. That if you aren’t doing things their way, if you don’t believe as they do, it’s clearly because of your hormones.

There is no other explanation. If you are a woman and you don’t want to be ultra-Orthodox, it is because you are a complete and utter slut.

Earlier: They’ve Been Aish’d

Gitty is speaking on a site created to support her in her struggle. I don’t want to take sides, but I would just say that no matter which side you are on, we should all appreciate that it isn’t easy for a young woman who loves her daughter very much to stand up for her rights to a fundamentalist underworld that hates her for returning to the liberalism of her ancestors.

Welcome back to the Haskalah, Gitty. Please keep us updated. You may not be quite home yet, mammelah, but you are on your way back.

May all the children of the Haskalah (and their friends and family) who lose their way, and fall to the dark entrapments of haredism be comforted. And may they, or at least their descendants, find the strength to find their way back.

And to all the children of the Haskalah caught in the misery of haredism, whether Chassidic or B’nai Torah, I would remind you of this:

Sometimes the gates to a western civilization are open, and sometimes the gates to western civilization are closed. But the gates to personal acceptance of science, history, and an appreciation of nature and the arts are always open.

Danielle Kubes penned an article for the Jerusalem Post, ‘You’ve Been Aish’d,’ that illuminates a few problems with Big Aish. These are savory accusations, so let’s chew them slowly.

How did a 15-year-old girl of the 21st century, who gave no thought to slipping tank-top straps, underage clubbing and kissing boys in camp cabins, end up considering covered elbows and knees a necessary virtue?

High school and university campuses have noticed this phenomenon for years: Their friends come back after school breaks from Orthodox outreach programs clutching Artscroll siddurs, imbued with a penchant for Zionism and an aversion to intermarriage.

“They’ve been Aish’d,” is the commonly whispered comment, equivalent to “They’ve been brainwashed.”

Of course, by the way, Aish’s PR people (5WPR is Aish’s PR firm…who better?) are typically batty in that self-righteous, infuriated way, and actually ask why brainwashing is a problem, and insist universities do the same thing. See the comments section.

Remember, Aish is not the most extreme of the Big Kiruv orgs, she is just one of the glitziest and sleaziest. Let’s rejoin Danielle as she exposes more of Big Aish’s greasy sleights of hand, and touches upon the Big Lie of Big Kiruv.

As valuable as the Orthodox lifestyle may be, the methods used by these organizations are eerily cultish and the results often short-lived.

The organizations present their Judaism as the uniquely accurate one, the Halacha that the non-Orthodox have merely forgotten but that all their ancestors invariably followed. Their assumption that all our great-great-grandparents grew up in an Eastern European shtetl contributes to divisiveness among Jews, for it fails to acknowledge that Halacha has had a variety of interpretations across different times and cultures.

What happens when someone brings this up?

A fellow participant on my trip was ignored by advisers when she remarked that for some Sephardim, the only halachic requirement was to be more modest than one’s neighbors, and that the stringent laws that guide current frum fashion (good-bye collarbones, elbows and knees) were unnecessary. Outright dismissal of alternative views may drive sales of skirt manufacturers, but it is not beneficial to learning about the history of Judaism.

Why the trips in the first place?

They remove participants from their normal environment and place them in a new, vulnerable context. Traveling is a mentally exhausting experience in any case. How much more so that is in Israel, where one suddenly finds oneself part of the majority - an intensely emotional experience that these programs capitalize on. Foreign ideas suddenly seem reasonable: Instead of lecturing someone with mostly secular friends to stop eating pork, it is easier to just stop serving it for a month in a completely Jewish environment.

Within such an environment, participants are made to feel guilty about a lack of observance. The organizations criticize the secular lifestyle as hollow so that young people, always in search of identity, undergo a crisis of confusion about which path to take.

A FALSE dilemma is presented: Be secular and remain in impurity, where life is merely a game played for fun - or move toward a purpose and filled with holiness.

When presented so simply, which road seems more attractive?

And remember…everything is wonderful in Frumville!

But the teachings are superficial and the Orthodox world they present bears not a trace of dissatisfaction: Never did I ever hear a speaker or trip leader discuss any problems within the Orthodox world. Apparently, as long as they follow proper Halacha, everybody is happy and fulfilled, with neither depression nor repression, money nor domestic problems.

If you or someone you know has a loved one or family friend–especially a young person–caught in the tangly web of Big Kiruv, please make sure they are aware of the true cost of these “subsidized” trips.

Protect our youth from getting Aish’d up!

Hat tip: JTA via EV

XGH asserts that it is Shmos (Exodus) that ultimately destroys any theoretical possibility of Orthodox Judaism being legitimate.

The Torah is quite clear that 600,000 males between the ages of 20-60 left Egypt. Simple math shows that when you include women and children the total number of people must have been well into the multiple millions. Yet such a number is completely impossible, given the logistics and population sizes of the ANE.

Arguing that there was no evidence left in the desert because their clothes never wore out and they ate manna doesn’t help. Firstly, camping remnants and other excretia would be huge for 2 million people. But even without any of that, an army of 600,000 men would have been unbelievable in the ancient world, where armies 20,000 strong were the largest seen. Not to mention the fact that the entire population of ancient Egypt was 4 million. 2 million people leaving would have left some kind of mark, but besides the Torah there is zero evidence of such an Exodus. And let’s not even talk about the logistics of moving 2 million people overnight out of Egypt.

Now, there is some possibility that the Hebrew people were mentioned (at least once), but that isn’t what XGH is addressing. He isn’t saying that there weren’t Hebrews ever in Egypt at any time. He is saying the narrative of the Torah and the specific number assigned doesn’t add up.

But why is the number so important to XGH?

Because while you can kvetch away in Breishis, in Shemos you are totally stuck. The narrative was handed to the Bnei Yisrael just after it happened, saying that it’s metaphorical makes no sense at all. Plus, the placement of the narrative is way too sensistive. It’s one thing to say ancient stories in the distant past like Gan Eden are allegorical. But Yetziat Mitzrayim, THE foundational story of our religion?! Might as well give up on OJ if that one is allegorical.

Some people argue that ‘elef’ means ‘clan’, or ‘army troop’, or similar. But this doesn’t work when you look at the census later on, which gives detailed individual numbers. And to say that the story here is exaggerated to teach some kind of lesson seems very bizarre, as the Dor Hamidbor [the generation that received the Torah in the desert] would have known the truth. And anyways, that makes the census detail look even more crazy.

The only reasonable explanation here is that this whole story was written years later. Hundreds of years later. And totally exaggerated (if it even happened at all).

It’s ironic that the kiruv clowns use the 600,000 number as a proof that the Torah is true. In fact, it’s just the opposite. The 600,000 number proves the Torah is false. That’s the real Kuzari proof.

How insane is Ohr Somayach? Only insane as the rest of the RWUO. That is to say….this meshugeh:

That having been said, the sources specifically link the number of mitzvot to the number of body parts of a person. Here a distinction is made between the positive commandments that are the “dos” and the prohibitions that are the “don’ts”. The idea is as follows: there are 613 mitzvot of which there are 248 dos and 365 don’ts. The 248 dos correspond to what our sources identify as the 248 limbs of the body, while the 365 don’ts correspond to 365 sinews and ligaments. Clearly, there is a connection between the proactive dos and the limbs as instruments of activity, just as there is a connection between the prohibitive don’ts and the restrictive nature of the ligaments.

What sources? Who made this nonsense up? 248 limbs? 365 sinews and ligaments?

These “sources” were wrong. Oh, right, they had big beards and lived a long time ago, so they had to be right.

So silly. Haredism is a very silly religion.

What does an ex-Satmar girl read? Well, if you see the slideshow of Gitty’s world, it’s no surprise.

I heard through the grapevine that friends of Gitty Grunwald are exploring options to sue the Satmar community of KJ in Monroe. KJ pressured Gitty to get engaged, and then they expelled her from school for being engaged. Gitty does not have the degree nor the education needed for vocational success. The only thing these KJ Satmar people are trained for is to be ultra-Orthodox fanatics, so they can pay for those individuals who decide they want to burn in hell and do something else.

If you or someone you know would take this case on consignment, please contact me, and I will pass along your information to those who need to know.

Ian Jobling takes Steve Sailer to task over Sailer’s quip on VDARE,

Do you ever get the impression that Kevin MacDonald has secretly bought a controlling interest in the New York Times and is rewriting its articles to make them prove his theories correct?

VDARE is, of course, quite comfortable with MacDonald. However, VDARE has also published articles critical of MacDonald.

I don’t think we can assume Sailer was serious unless Sailer actually endorses MacDonald’s theories.

Regardless, Jobling insists that the issue is not a Jewish plot to seize more power for themselves, but rather, believes,

“Today’s Jewish liberals are consistently hostile to both Jewish and Gentile nationalism. Jewish hostility to Gentile nationalism would thus seem to be motivated by disinterested intellectual principle than by a lust for ethnic power.”

While this may be true for many Jewish liberals (and to some degree, I agree with Jobling), it does seem to me that for some, particularly for Holocaust survivor descendants, there is tremendous fear of white Christian power, to the point where a rational selection of allies and crafting of policy is preempted by paranoia and victimology.

I certainly don’t buy into MacDonald, but I am not sure it is always liberal idealism that is the sole motivator for Jewish attacks on white communal identities like Jobling would prefer to believe.

I forgot the link to Ian Jobling’s post! Go here.