FailedMessiah.com

Haredi-Run Digital Camera Scam?

[Photo: Don Wiss.]

The New York Times ran this report on online digital camera dealers who use bait-and-stuff tactics worthy of the worst scams of yesteryear. Don Wiss, a Brooklyn-based camera enthusiast, has spent many hours tracking down the addresses of these online hucksters and taking pictures of their buildings. Many appear to be in haredi areas of Brooklyn, for example 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and the best of them all, 10. Mr. Wiss has received death threats because of his work. And, as always, haredi rabbinical leaders are silent, absent without leave.

[Here's pic #10. Click it to enlarge.]

More TypePad Trouble

TypePad, the blogging service used to host this blog, is experiencing what (if they ever notice) is sure to be called "degraded service." Degraded service is TypePad-speak for glitchy behavior, which often includes the inability to post comments, the inability to post stories, the inability to edit, or any combination of the above. In this case, only some of TypePad's functions are acessible. Others bring up Proxy Server errors. When will this be resolved? Who knows. TypePad has had two major failures in the past four months, along with dozens of minor problems stretching back almost one year. Their so-called Status Blog shows all services up and running, so they have not yet realized that they have a problem. (I called their corporate office and left a brief message. Perhaps they'll pick it up after their morning coffee.) All this would be acceptable from a free service, but TypePad is not free. One must wonder how long it will be before Blogger or Yahoo or some other entity opens a premium service on dedicated servers with realtime tech support that works. When that day comes, my guess is TypePad will simply fade away.

UPDATE: It's 2:15 am CST, January 31. TypePad has "disabled" the stats (the internal counters that measure web traffic to individual blogs) in order to take the load off its (supposedly new and state of the art) servers. This is a common TypePad ocurrance. In this case, stats have been down for more than 16 hours. TypePad only recently began admitting that it frequently disables stats to relieve server load. Those of us relying on TypePad's stats have been damaged by this apparently long-standing but until recently hushed up practice.

A friend is launching a large group blog with dozens of contributors. No tech person he spoke with recommended TypePad. No wonder.

UPDATE #2: It's 9:45 am CST on the 31st. Entering the TypePad application to do anything other than post takes more than three minutes. It should take no more than 10 to 15 seconds. What does TypePad have to say about all this? Their "status blog" notes no problems. As is almost always the case,TypePad is asleep at the switch.

NY State To Issue "Guidelines" On Circumcision – YU Rabbi J.D. Bleich Supports Rabbis, Not At Risk Children

New York Newsday has an AP report on the new New York State guidelines on metzitza b'peh, the oral suction used by many haredi mohels during circumcision to suction blood from the open wound:

The new state guidelines would stop short of a ban, but include precautions that could reduce the chances of infection, said New York State Department of Health spokesman Robert Kenny.

Rabbis will likely be asked to inform their congregations about the potential risks of the procedure and parents advised to seek prompt care from a pediatrician if their baby develops a fever or rash.

Steps would also be taken to "ensure that mohels have full knowledge of their health status" before they perform the ritual, Kenny said.

He declined to discuss details of the guidelines, saying they were still being developed. Several religious leaders who support metzitzah b'peh have suggested that mohels be asked to rinse their mouths with alcohol, undergo regular testing for disease and refrain from doing circumcisions if they have a cold sore.

"Our priority is to protect the public health, and increase the awareness of the potential health risks associated with this practice," Kenny said.

The guidelines are likely to displease some doctors.

Dr. Jonathan M. Zenilman, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said that while infections have been rare, the potential for harm is substantial enough to justify a ban.

"This is something that is pretty much counter to all of the infection-control measures that we have," Zenilman said.

Asking mohels to police themselves could be ineffective, he warned. As many as 70 percent of all adults have herpes simplex 1, and it is difficult to detect periods when the virus is contagious.

Which is exactly what the problem is. But haredim, led by Satmar and Agudath Israel, have done everything in their power to stop the city and state from regulating circumcision or limiting the practice of MBP, including threatening to marr Mayor Bloomberg's inaguration by busing in thousands of haredim wearing striped death camp uniforms to protest.

The AP notes the problem:

It is unclear how the Hasidic community will react to the guidelines, which would be voluntary.

Rabbi David Niederman, of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg, has argued for no government action, saying there is too little medical evidence to justify a public warning on a ritual performed safely thousands of times a year.

"Parents have been alarmed unnecessarily," he said, adding that he has already begun receiving calls from worried mothers.

He said religious law contained provisions that would allow oral suction to be abandoned, but only if there was proof it could cause permanent harm.

"We are not fanatics," Niederman said. "If there is evidence that this practice is not safe, we will not do it. We will be the first ones to act. That is embodied in the same Torah that tells us to make a bris for a child."

Right. Niederman is already on record comparing MBP to Shabbat law, and has stated continually that there is no evidence of danger, even when many medical experts disagree. Further, Niederman heads the Satmar religious court (beit din) charged by agreement with the city with investigating the cases of herpes related to Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer. The beit din agreed to present its findings to the city by December 1, 2005, but did not do so. And it has not done so since. This is hardly an indication of concern for children. And, if that is not enough, we have the threatened "Holocaust card."

This might lead one to think the haredim are acting badly. But, thankfully for them, a convenient shill exists to protect them, somewhat, from the wrath of (for want of a better description) normal people:

Rabbi J. David Bleich, a professor of both Jewish and secular law at Yeshiva University, said the debate over metzitzah b'peh began in Europe during the mid-19th Century, when suspicion arose that it was spreading tuberculosis.

Ever since, there has been disagreement over whether the practice was recommended by the Talmud for medical reasons, or ordered as a requirement of a covenant with God.

A majority of reform and modern orthodox mohels decided on the former, and now clean a circumcision wound with sterile gauze, a sponge or a glass tube.

But a century and a half of debate hasn't resolved the argument, and Bleich suggested that actions by health authorities wouldn't settle the issue either.

"Whatever changes are going to come are not going to come because of government pressure. If you want to change the way rabbis are doing things, the way to do it isn't to threaten them."

Rabbi Bleich, who early in this controversy suggested that washing the mohel's mouth out with schnapps or whiskey just before the bris would solve the problem – a contention laughed at by infectious disease experts, yet still noted anonymously above – coveniently forgets to mention that doctors proved disease transmission through MBP in the mid-1800's. When the practice was banned, generally by the leading non-hasidic rabbis of the day – the death rate dropped dramatically.

Rabbi Bleich, widely considered an expert on issues of halakha and medicine, seems much more concerned about protecting rabbis than protecting children. This is both an indictment of Rabbi Bleich, and of the institution that pays his salary.*

[Please click on the Circumcision Controversy link below to see previous posts on this issue. As always, scroll down to the bottom of the new page and read the posts from bottom to top.]

*One might recall that another YU rabbi, Mordechai Willig, spent a considerable amount of effort protecting the now-convicted child molester, NCSY's Rabbi Baruch Lanner. In the process of doing this, Rabbi Willig abused his power while showing disregard for the safety of minors. He was outed and forced to apologize to Rabbi Lanner's victims and their families. But YU took no disciplinary action against him. Again, with vulnerable children facing possible death or maiming, a YU rabbi has spoken out – not in favor of the powerless victims, but to protect abusive rabbis. Hardly a track record for YU to be proud of.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet – Rav Kaduri, ZTZ"L

Rav Kaduri, ztz"l, passed away tonight. Details …

Matthew Wagner of the Jerusalem Post has written a wonderful article on the life of Rav Kaduri, ztz"l. (Wagner is clearly the best writer covering Orthodox Judaism working in the English language. If the JPost had a normal syndication policy, Wagner would be much more widely known.)

Iowa's Ag Secretery Accepted $10K From Rubashkin While USDA Investigation Open

Iowa's Secretery of Agriculture, Patty Judge, accepted a $10,000 campaign contribution from Rabbi Sholom and Leah Rubashkin during her run for the Democratic nonination for governor last year. That amounted to just under 10% of what she raised. An additional $35,000 was given by other large farm interests, including others she regulated. Some had been under investigation in recent years for environmental violations. Judge regulated these donors as well. 35% of her campaign war chest came form these interests.

Judge is best known to the Jewish community for excoriating Rubashkin after viewing the undercover video of his slaughter operation. (Please see link on left sidebar of this page.) But, less than two weeks later, after being given a private tour of the closed plant, led by Sholom Rubashkin, and watching three or four animals slaughtered by a hand-picked schochet, she declared the plant operations "humane."

During that tour, Patty Judge heard Rubashkin say the following:

Rubashkin noted that muscles on the barely recognizable heads continued to twitch more than an hour after the heads had been separated from their bodies. "Look. It's breathing. It's calling for help," Rubashkin said, referring sarcastically to PETA's claim that videotaped movements of cattle after their throats had been cut constitutes evidence they were conscious and suffering.

Judge's office denied that Judge had given a free pass to Rubashkin, or that her judgement of what she saw in any way effected what took place at the plant before being exposed by PETA in late November, 2004. But, at the same time, Judge refused to personally clarify her remarks, and stood by in silence as Rubashkin and his rabbis used them like this:

Officials at the Orthodox Union, the world's largest Kashrut-certifying organization, expressed satisfaction at Secretary Judge’s comments. “We are gratified that a personal inspection tour of AgriProcessors by Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Patty Judge, made it clear that kosher slaughter there is done humanely,” declared Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, Executive Vice President of the Orthodox Union, and Rabbi Menachem Genack, Rabbinic Administrator of the OU Kosher division. "Clearly, humane slaughter goes on at the AgriProcessors plant, in conformity with the laws of Torah which make it clear that humanity to animals is a religious requirement in Judaism.”

In a statement issued several days earlier, Rabbis Weinreb and Genack declared:

“After carefully studying the [PETA] video, Rabbi Menachem Genack and Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, one of the OU’s distinguished poskim (rabbinic decisors), traveled to Postville, Iowa to review the procedures at the AgriProcessors plant. They found that these procedures meet all OU standards to the highest degree, and that the shochtim (rabbinic slaughters) are all highly proficient, skilled and knowledgeable. Nevertheless, the OU and AgriProcessors, Inc. have worked together to make certain changes, namely that the trachea will no longer be removed following shechita (kosher slaughter), and that any animals that appear to have survived the procedure will be promptly stunned or shot.”

“This was the first time I had an opportunity to see kosher slaughter," Secretary Judge said. "I was glad to see how it works." She said she saw three cattle slaughtered, and that they were rendered insensible and unconscious within “two or three seconds” after the shochet's cut.

Judge accepted the $10,000 contribution from Rubashkin not long after.

The OU's statement, quoted above, makes it clear that throat-ripping, the practice of ripping out the trachea of the just-schechted animal with a hook while it is still alive and fully concious, had been stopped. It does not note that it made this decision only after the USDA released teaching guidelines for its FSIS inspectors telling them to stop the line and shut down any plant doing it.

This appears to be another indication that Rubashkin and his family, including his brother-in-law, Rabbi Milton "Yehoshua" Balkany, and perhaps certain officials closely linked to the OU, have been using their political influence and liberal campaign donations to thwart the release of the USDA's investigation of AgriProcessors. The investigation is widely belived to be damaging, not only to Rubashkin, but to the kosher industry as well, and to specific rabbis and supervising agencies whose lobbying to remove USDA restaints on humane slaughter directly led to Rubashkin's shop of horrors.

As more evidence of influence peddling appears to surface, the pressure on the Bush administration rises. To keep a FSIS investigation under wraps for more than one year after its completion, to refuse to relaese any information related to this investigation under the Freedom of Information Act because the investigation – completed, according to the FSIS in early January, 2005 – is still "open," and to otherwise stonewall journalists can only lead one to believe that the Bush administration has something to hide. That something? Follow the money.

PRAY: Rav Kaduri's, Shlit"a, Condition Reportedly Worsens

The Jerusalem Post is reporting Rav Kaduri's, shlit"a, condition has significantly worsened. His Hebrew name is Yitshak ben Tufaha. For those wanting to pray or do other mitzvot in his merit, instructions and online information can be found here.

A New Yorker Cartoon We Would Like To See

More here.

The Angel Of Addis Ababa

Barbara Sofer of the Jerusalem Post reports on her Friday night in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia:

Friday night at the home of Rick Hodes in Addis Ababa. There's no Chabad House in the capital of Ethiopia, so visitors from near and far gather in this modest wooden structure with its big front porch …

Dr. Rick, as everyone calls him, blesses the 15 children one by one. And then, in a country where no one manufactures kosher wine or bakes halla, he makes Kiddush and then says the blessing on barley rolls…

These children understand the blessing of bread. They all grew up in African poverty, where a laborer's dollar-a-day wage has to pay for family food and lodgings. Then they lost even that. A smart and funny eight-year-old, for example, arrived in Addis from a village with his father after his mother's death. When the boy looked up from a game of marbles, his father had left too.

Most of the youngsters suffer from serious illnesses. Four have hump backs from congenital malformations or spinal tuberculosis. Others have suffered from rheumatic heart disease, polio and the trauma of warfare. Two teenaged boys have each lost legs to cancer. They're the same size, so they share a pair of sneakers.…

Dr. Rick came to Ethiopia two decades ago after a childhood on Long Island, a university education in Vermont, four years in Alaska, and medical school in Rochester and Baltimore. He'd specialized in internal medicine, and landed a teaching job in Addis Ababa on a Fulbright scholarship. When the Jews of Ethiopia began their exodus to Israel, he returned to work for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and continues to care for Ethiopian Jews and Falash Mura. He's also the volunteer medical adviser to Mother Teresa's Mission for Sick and Dying Destitutes. In addition, he pours his energy and resourcefulness into hundreds of personal rescue missions. Through connections and persuasiveness, he manages to do the impossible: arranging complex surgery for Ethiopian children in the United States, in Israel, in India and Ghana.

Sometimes donors appear with generous gifts; often Dr. Rick signs for the expenses himself. …

Dr. Rick adopted five of the children, moved by their medical needs, and later because he liked being their Dad, making sure they did their school work, gently teasing them through medical procedures and glum days.…

I met Dr. Rick twice in the 1990's. He's a very quiet, unassuming man – one whose deeds speak the volumes he does not. Perhaps if Chabad ever opens a Chabad House in Addis, they will honor him.  Although I wouldn't hold your breath.

(Chabad has outposts in Africa, including this one in the Congo. Congo's Jewish population? 300. But they are 300 wealthy Sefardic Jews and Israeli businessmen. Ethiopia has no wealthy Jews, and has a white Jewish population of 100. Chabad refuses to help Ethiopian Jews – please see here for a series of posts on this issue. Read from the bottom of the page upward.)

Quiz

Choose the answer that is the closest to the empirical truth:

1. The universe is: A) 15 billion years old. B) Less than 6000 years old. C) I'd prefer not to know.
2. Human beings first walked on this earth: A) 50,000 years ago. B) Less than 6000 years ago. C) I'd prefer not to know.
3. A) The earth revolves around the sun. B) The sun revolves around the earth. C) I'd prefer not to know.
4. A) Mice can be spontaneously generated from mud. Lice, too. B) Spontaneous generation does not exist. C) I'd prefer not to know.
5. A) Rashi discovered electricity. B) Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. C) I'd prefer not to know.
6. A) Rabbis can predict the future. B) No they can not. C) I'd prefer not to know.
7. Saliva when placed on an open, bleeding circumcision wound of an infant: A) Promotes healing. B) Transmits disease. C) I'd prefer not to know.
8. Charles Darwin was: A) Evil. B) A scientist. C) Both A & B.
9. Modern medicine was made possible by: A) Science. B) Rabbis. C) God acting through scientists.
10. Which of the following knew modern physics: A) The rabbis of the Talmud. B) Galileo. C) Newton. D) None of the above. E) All of the above.

Answer keys after the jump.

Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum Lies About Evolution

Am Echad was founded by Agudath Israel's Rabbi Moshe Sherer to fight the idea of "streams" or denominations in Judaism. Only one legitimate form of Judaism exists according to Rabbi Sherer's ideology – haredi. Everything that is not ultra-Orthodox is therefore treife, including, it would seem Modern Orthodoxy.

Am Echad's chief spinmeister is Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum, a convert to haredism. (Yes, I know this is politically incorrect; Rabbi Rosenblum is a ba'al teshuva, and, as the haredi dogma goes, a Jew cannot convert to haredism – he simply "returns" to his natural state. This dogma is false, but here is not the place to explain why.) Rabbi Rosenblum, a product of the Ivy League, is a talented polemicist. His latest effort is a broadside against evolution, in which Rabbi Rosenblum sets up several straw men and then – effortlessly! imagine that! – knocks them down. He does this by selecting statements from evolution's scientific critics and buttresses them with out of context quotes from evolution's scientific supporters.

What Rosenblum does not tell you is the scientific critics of evolution number proportionately fewer than the number of academics who deny the Holocaust. It is like taking a minute sample of Americans who support a Stalinist takeover of America and representing them as a significant force in American politics. He also insists on labeling evolution as random, when only the most radical scientists (helpfully quoted by Rosenblum to misrepresent the scientific mainstream) would describe it that way.

Further, Rosenblum avoids entirely recent findings in genetics that confirm findings in other disciplines dating human presence on this earth to tens of thousands of years ago – much earlier than the Torah's 6000-year-old universe allows.

Haredim, fresh from their ban on Rabbi Nosson Slifkin, are now engaged – with the help of Christian fundamentalists – in an effort to promote Intelligent Design, the pseudo-science created by Christian fundamentalists after their earlier pseudo-science, creationism, was laughed out of court and out of the nation's public schools. They want ID taught as science in public schools, even though ID has no peer reviewed science and is nothing more than religion thinly, if at all, veiled.

Rosenblum will argue his misrepresentations are not lies and, while drawn brashly for effect, his points are not invalid.

But truth matters. As does context. As do one's political bedfellows. Science has taken us from donkey carts and witches brews to airplanes, space flights and modern medicine in less than 200 years. It did so in large part because it was freed from the restraints of religion enforced by a state-supported church and a rabbi-dominated Jewish community. Rosenblum would return us to those days of yore to preserve his fundamentalist reading of the Torah. We must not let him.

Shabbatai Tsvi In Our Daily Life?

Philologos reports:

The expression "shabbat shalom," literally, "Sabbath of peace," is neither modern nor secular in origin. … [I]t originated in the Galilee, in the city of Safed, in the mystical circle of renowned kabbalist Isaac Luria (1534-1582) — also known by an acronym of his name, forming the Hebrew word for "The Lion," as Ha-Ari.

Luria and his disciples had many unique practices, the best guide to which can be found in the Hebrew book "Hemdat Yamim,"[1] "The Adornment of Days," written in Jerusalem in the 17th century. Although its anonymous author was not, as he was once reputed to be, Nathan of Gaza, the "prophet" and apostle of the false Messiah Sabbetai Zevi — he apparently was, besides being a follower of Lurianic customs, a Sabbatian sympathizer. In a chapter on Sabbath observance, he declares that after leaving synagogue at the end of the Musaf service Saturday morning, a Jew should "go directly home in great joy instead of meandering here and there [to visit friends or neighbors] and say in a loud voice when he enters [his home], 'Shabbat shalom u'mevorakh,' and sit down at the table dressed in white like an angel of God."

The word u'mevorakh, which means "and blessed" in Hebrew, is puzzling in this context, inasmuch as, a grammatically masculine and singular form [2], it is not clear to whom or what it refers. It cannot be to the Sabbath, since shabbat in Hebrew is feminine, as is the traditional image of the Sabbath as a queen or bride; yet neither can it be to the members of the greeter's family, in which case it would be u'mevorakhim, in the plural. Perhaps it refers to the good angel who, in kabbalistic belief, accompanies every Jew during the Sabbath and is here being welcomed to the greeter's home, just as the Sabbath angels are welcomed in the hymn Shalom aleykhem, mal'akhei ha-sharet ("Welcome in peace, ministering angels"), that is traditionally sung around the Friday night table. Perhaps the answer lies in some other Lurianic precept.[3]

[1] Hemdat Yamim was very popular among the early leaders of the Hasidic movement.
[2] If the custom was of Sabbatian origin, 'u'mevorakh" does make sense. It would be referring to Shabbatai Tsvi, who was thought to be in a "mystical union" with both the shekhina and the "Shabbat Queen."
[3] Can anyone trace "Shabbat Shalom" to before Shabbatai Tsvi? If not, why not?

NEWLY UPDATED: Joe Lieberman Goes Slumming – Holds Meeting In Home Of Disgraced Orthodox Fundraiser Rabbi Milton Balkany – Head of ZOA, Young Israel Also Attend – So Does Convicted Swindler Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum

The Forward reports Connecticut Senator Josef Lieberman last week held a meeting in the Brooklyn home of Rabbi Milton Balkany. Also in attendance was the Zionist Organization of America's Morton Klein and Young Israel's Rabbi Pesach Lerner.

Rabbi Balkany, known as the "Brooklyn Bundler" for his practice of bundling campaign contributions from his family – including the Rubashkins of Postville and Allentown infamy – and close friends. This effort allows Rabbi Balkany to skirt existing campaign financing laws and "give" donations well in excess of the legal limit, later using the influence this buys to further his projects.

Rabbi Balkany misused a $700,000 federal grant meant for handicapped students. Balkany admitted wrongdoing in an agreement with government and returned the money. But, as the Forward notes, Balkany now denies the facts of that agreement and the very text he signed:

Balkany, interviewed by telephone, said that press reports of his legal woes were nothing more than "smearing."

"There never was an indictment," he said about the 2003 charges. He added: "The government raised something. They walked away with egg on their faces. They made an apology."

"I have dedicated my life to Jewish education and the Jewish community," he said.

Helpfully, the Forward prints the statement Rabbi Balkany signed:

In 2004, prosecutors released a statement from Balkany in which he acknowledged violating an "understanding" with the government.

"Contrary to my understanding with HUD, I authorized the use of the grant to pay for general administrative and operational expenses of both Bais Yaakov and the Children's Center of Brooklyn, even though I knew that the specific terms of the grant did not permit me to use the funds in this manner," the rabbi said in the statement.

In other words, Rabbi Balkany admitted embezzling the money, money which was meant to benefit handicapped Jewish students. (If memory serves, something like $300,000 of the embezzled funds ended up in his son's bank account in Israel.) The politically well-connected rabbi got off without a record. But reports at the time indicated that Rabbi Balkany is also barred from receiving further government grants. He also was barred from a federal Parisian chaplaincy he created, apparently because of allegations he sold his services – and political influence – to prisoners and their families. Balkany is alleged to have delivered special privileges in return for payoffs.

Balkany is the  son-in-law of Aaron Rubashkin, patriarch of the Rubashkin family that runs the Postville, Iowa-based AgriProcessors slaughter house. AgriProcessors is under investigation by the USDA for alleged cruelty to animals (please see the links on the left side of this page). The USDA investigation started in December of 2004. The USDA indicated it would release the results in January of 2005. But it did not, and has remained silent for more than one year. Freedom of Information requests regarding the investigation have been rejected because the investigation is classified as "open."

There are those who believe Rubashkin and Balkany arranged for this unusual delay through Balkany's influence. As the months tick by without result, the number of insiders who believe this grows. Others believe Agudath Israel and the OU were able to get the investigation report quashed, allegedly because the rabbis charged with the plant's kosher supervision  advocated and administered the cruelty.

That Lieberman would consort with Balkany is surprising. As the Forward notes, several politicians – including President Bush – have returned Balkany-related donations.

But why were Klein and Lerner there? Apparently, taking $700,000 from handicapped Jewish children is not enough to keep Klein and Lerner away from the Balkany money trough.

UPDATE: A reader points out that Rabbi Balkany was not the only crooked rabbi in attendance. A photo of the event in HaModia shows Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Alliance of America. Who is Rabbi Gershon Tannenbaum? A two-time convicted swindler, once in the 1970's, and again in the 1990's:

Download gershon_tannenbaum_1.pdf    Download gershon_tannenbaum_2.pdf     Download gershon_tannenbaum_3.pdf Download gershon_tannenbaum_sec_litigation.pdf
Download gershon_tannenbaum_stock_fraud.pdf
Download gershon_tannenbaum_federal_bureau_of_prisons.pdf

Why is Joe Lieberman associating with these shysters? And why do Orthodox Jews allow them to lead their community?

Chabad And Evolution

The DesertNews has a report surveying the beliefs of various religions regarding evolution. All mention have degrees of flexibility. The most liberal, like the Catholic Church, openly endorse evolution and see the first chapters of Genesis as allegory. The least liberal see evolution as fitting within Genesis if parts of the text are understood as allegory. This would be the Mormon position, for example. The Muslim position is a literal understanding of Genesis and a rejection of evolution, but with an important caveat:

"Scientific theories change over time," [the imam] adds. "If science someday proves Darwin's theory to be a fact, without a speck of doubt, then we would somehow find a way to make it compatible with the word of God."

Christian fundamentalists read Genesis in an absolutely literal fashion. No wiggle room here. But what, asks the DesertNews, do Orthododx Jews believe? Enter a Lubavitcher rabbi, Benny Zippel, to represent us all:

Orthodox Judaism, too, has a literal approach to creation, taken from the Old Testament and the Talmud, known collectively as Torah.

"Torah does not believe in evolution," said Rabbi Benny Zippel of Chabad Lubavitch of Utah. "Torah believes that during the six days of creation, God created man in God's image."

This reads Rav Kook, Rabbi Hertz, the Tiferet Yisrael, and almost all of Modern Orthodoxy out of Orthodox Judaism. It also perverts the words of Rishonim who argued all of ma'ase bereshit (the creation story) is allegorical, and ignores the Rambam's (Maimonidies) philosophy entirely. Worse yet, it is predicated on the belief that the days of creation were six 24 hour days exactly like todays days in length. This reads out Rabbi Dessler and many others, including at least one rabbi who signed the Rabbi Slifkin Ban.

This either represents complete ignorance of Orthodox opinion on this critical issue, or it represents a willful disregard of it. Either way, this is another in a long line of examples where Chabad's "wellsprings" of Torah prove to run shallow, not deep.

Haredim Move To Thwart Health Dept's Info On Metzitza B'Peh - Going Directly To Parents Seen As A Threat To Rabbis' Hegemony

In another excellent article about the metzitza b'peh circumcision controversy, the New York Jewish Week reports on rabbinical opposition to educating new mothers about the risk of MBP:

In a full-page ad in last week’s Brooklyn Orthodox paper, The Jewish Press, a new group calling itself Friends of Bris Milah (ritual circumcision) urged parents to call a 24-hour hot line “to report any conversation initiated by doctors, hospitals and other professional caregivers” regarding the procedure known as metzitzah b’peh.

Describing the plan as “a giant step leading to a ban” on the procedure, the hot-line message asked callers to leave the names of any health professional making “negative statements ... against our mesorah [tradition]” and specifics about what was said, where and when.

The information will be used to prepare for “future action,” the message said, raising the possibility of protests and pressure on specific caregivers.

Efforts to reach Rabbi S.F. Zimmerman of Monsey, identified in the ad as a recipient of contributions to the group, went unanswered. But sources in the Satmar chasidic community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn said the group was tied to the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada, a Satmar rabbinic organization that has taken a lead in opposing city plans.

Why rabbinic opposition? No surprise here:

Comments this week from some Orthodox leaders indicated the department’s plan to put its information and warning directly into the hands of new mothers was being seen as a threat, or attempted end run, around the authority of leading rabbis — a broader, more fundamental issue in Orthodox sectors where these rabbis are looked to as unquestioned, and exclusive, sources of guidance.…

Interviews with several parents from these communities underlined this rabbinic-centered worldview and the hurdle it will pose for the Health Department.

Agudath Israel of America's Rabbi David Zwiebel explains:

Zwiebel noted the information sheet the city plans to distribute advises parents to consult their mohel and pediatrician about the procedure.“It probably would have been more respectful to have said ‘consult your rabbi,’ ” he said.

“It’s almost as if the Health Department didn’t want to encourage people to speak to their rabbi and figure out with him their traditional regulations.”

Rabbi Zwiebel wants respect? Perhaps these rabbis should actually earn it:

With the city’s agreement, the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada was to rule on the case of a mohel the department judged to have passed herpes to at least three infants in recent months via metzitzah b’peh.

The Health Department had agreed to let the religious court handle the problem by a mutually agreed upon deadline of Dec.1, but the rabbinic court missed the deadline. In the meantime, the city discovered two more recent cases.…

The department has identified seven [MBP-transmitted] cases since 1988, including five in the last two years. They include one child who died and two who suffered significant brain damage.

So the city was forced to act without the rabbis – who have still not issued their ruling or completed their 'investigation,' 50 days after its mutually-agreed deadline.

Satmar and Agudath Israel lied to the mayor, stonewalled their own 'investigation,' and now blame the city for acting alone. The idea? Shoot the messenger so the message can be disregarded. These haredim never intended to investigate MBP or to stop the procedure. No amount of evidence short of a widespread epidemic will cause change. And babies will die and be maimed as a result.

This behavior by the CRC and Satmar, charged by the city at their own request with investigating and managing this issue, is criminal. And I mean that quite literally. When, God forbid, the next baby is maimed or dies from MBP, the city should charge the leaders of the CRC (and perhaps their allies at Agudath Israel of America, as well) with criminal endangerment, neglecting the welfare of a child, and, if the case warrants, manslaughter.

In the meantime, do your share. Refuse to donate any money to any haredi institution whose leaders blindly support MBP or have been silent in the face of Satmar's maleficence. Make sure to tell them why you are not donating. A short list:

• all institutions that are part of the hasidic movement (any branch: Satmar, Belz, Bobov, Skver, Chabad, etc.)
• the (American) Mirer yeshiva
• Agudath Israel of America

Haredim need to learn a lesson. Please teach it to them.

[Click the Circumcision Controversy link below for an archive of posts about this issue. As always, please read from the bottom of the page upward. Thank you.]

Hundreds Of Haredim Riot Near Jerusalem

Efrat Weiss of Y-net reports:

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox on Monday blocked a road leading to the Ramat Beit Shemesh neighborhood near Jerusalem, set fire to garbage carts and hurled stones at police officers who were dispatched to the area.

The reason for the commotion was a protest against a new family that moved to the neighborhood and is "not religious enough," according to the protestors.…

The demonstrators were also protesting the arrest of two ultra-Orthodox men Sunday night, after the two blocked the road with garbage bins to protest against the presence of the new family.…

The new family moved to Ramat Beit Shemesh a number of weeks ago. The other families in the neighborhood decided the newcomers were "not religious enough" and began harassing them in a bid to prompt them to move somewhere else.

But, God forbid, normal non-haredi Israelis even non-violently protest against haredim moving into their neighborhoods. That would be "racist," (Just ask Am Echad and Agudath Israel. But it is worse than that. Many haredim who moved into secular neighborhoods were missionaries trying to convert the secular populace to haredism.)

Har Nof, Ramot, and many other post-1967 neighborhoods started off as secular. Then haredim moved in and took over. How did they do that? In part, this way:

Riots against pizzeria, bus route

This is not the first time ultra-Orthodox people are rioting in the area. In September, clashes erupted between police officers and about 100 ultra-Orthodox residents next to a neighborhood pizzeria.

The protestors arrived at the pizzeria and demanded that its owner close it, claiming that he was selling pizzas to inappropriately dressed teenagers. A policewoman was lightly injured during the clashes and an ultra-Orthodox man was arrested.

Two and a half years ago, neighborhood residents demonstrated against a new bus route connecting the town of Beit Shemesh with ultra-orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem.

"The buses are not modest enough," the ultra-Orthodox residents claimed, while attempting to block the neighborhood's main road. Police removed the protestors from the area and arrested seven ultra-Orthodox men on suspicion they tried to disrupt buses.

Which way to the stone age? Just follow the thugs with the dirty black hats.

UPDATE: PRAY – Rav Kaduri, Shlit"a, Reported In Critical And Unstable Condition

Rabbi Yitshak Kaduri, shlit"a, the 108-(or more)-year-old rosh hamekubbalim (head of the kabbalists worldwide), is reported to be seriously ill in a Jerusalem hospital. It is proper to pray for his recovery, and to say tehillim (psalms) and do extra mitzvot in his merit. Indeed, Chief Rabbis of Israel have called for Jews worldwide to pray for Rav Kaduri's, shlit"a, recovery, and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has gone to Bikur Holim hospital to visit him.

Rav Kaduri's name is Yitshak ben Tufaha. (For online resources, including tehillim in English and in Hebrew, see this post.)

Reports: Arutz Sheva 1, 2, and 3; Jerusalem Post; Y-net.

UPDATE: 1-16-06 The Jerusalem Post is reporting that Rav Kaduri, shlit"a is in critical and unstable condition, and has now been put in a medically-induced coma.

Chabad Messianists Threaten Olmert Over Hebron: "All those who harm the Land of Israel declare war on God and his commands, and face the consequences."

Three leading Chabad messianists have sent Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert a letter warning of dire consequences if Olmert forces Jews who are squatting in Arab-owned storefronts in Hebron to leave. "All those who harm the Land of Israel declare war on God and his commands, and face the consequences," the rabbis wrote, saying that Olmert will face "a personal catastrophe" if he continues with the evacuation. The rabbis "warn" Olmert of Ariel Sharon's "fate" after Sharon  "destroyed Gush Katif and northern Samaria."

The leader of this group is Rabbi Sholom DovBer Wolpe, the leading theologian of Chabad messianism. He is the rabbi who compared Disengagement from Gaza with the Holocaust and is planning to open a "Yad Vashem"-style "Holocaust" museum to mark the "tragedy." The Other members of the triad are Rabbis Gedalia Axelrod*, a Chabad rabbi who is a former rabbinical court judge in Haifa, and Yekutiel Rapp. Rapp and Wolpe are members of SOS Israel, a group opposing Disengagement and advocating resistance to thwart it.

They represent the dominant Chabad faction in Israel and perhaps the world. And that should worry us all.

* Rabbi Axelrod wrote in Ha'aretz, Thursday, January 15, 1998, 3 1/2 years after the Rebbe's death:

I read the article by David Berger - "On false Messianism, idolatry and Lubavitch," Ha'aretz, Jan.11) in which I was attacked together with other rabbis of cities and heads of rabbinical courts in Israel and abroad, for signing a formal rabbinical ruling stating that the Lubavitcher Rebbe has the
status of a prophet, and that he is the Messiah, and that every Jew must accept the sovereignty of his Messiahship, by dint of the Jewish law which obligates all Jews to obey a prophet. The writer of the article went so far as to proclaim that "this declaration alone is sufficient to exclude its promulgators from Orthodox Judaism."In his article, Berger makes an hysterical attack on the entire Lubavitch movement. First, I would like to make one thing absolutely clear to David Berger and to everyone else. There is no halachic dispensation that will enable anyone to evade accepting the yoke of the belief in the Rebbe's Messiahship, because of Maimonides' ruling that obligates all Jews to do so. …

Chabad In National Geographic

Front row, second and third from right: Rabbis Levi and Mendel Feller. Third row, third from right: Their uncle, Rabbi Shmuel Lew. Carolyn Drake, National Geographic. {Rabbi Moshe Grossbaum may be in the back left with his nose and mouth obscured by the crown of a hat. Facing left, first from the left in row three, may be Rabbi Motti Grossbaum.]

National Geographic has a photo series on Chabad in Crown Heights. Note the picture of the parochet has been cropped to cut out the "Yechi" slogan, and somehow, none of the photos have any "Yechi" material in them, even though it is very common throughout Crown Heights and in 770 itself. The price an outside photographer pays for entrance? High.

[Hat tip: Nachum Lamm.]

The Duplicity Of Agudath Israel Of America

In the 1940's Agudath Israel of America and the Spero Foundation published a series of chapbooks known as Jewish Pocket Books. These were by and large nothing more than apologetics designed to keep Orthodox youth "in the fold." As a measure of their success, one can note that most children born into Orthodox homes in 1930 became members of Conservative congregations in their adulthood. This failure to retain the youth has many causes, not all of them attributable to bad apologetics. Yet, in 1947 Aguda published a truly despicable chapbook in the series, Science and Judaism, authored by Rabbis Harold Leiman and Joseph Elias. It is little more than warmed over creationism. It misrepresents both how science works, and what science had already proved, while at the same time avoiding all mention of traditional Jewish sources that support evolution and the findings of paleontology.

But within this book is a stunning admission regarding the Jewish heritage of Ethiopian Jews:

The Falashas of Abyssinia considered themselves Jews who emigrated from Palestine in the times of King Solomon. In fact they only posess some books of the Bible and have been out of touch with later developments of Jewish history. Yet they believe in the future coming of the Messiah and the rising of the dead. This belief is one of the doctrines of Judaism since Sinaitic days, it is therefore natural that Falashas share it. Orientalists, however, "cannot" concede its divinely inspired origin; they consider it an invention of suffering Jewry after the fall of the Maccabean dynasty. Instead of accepting the evidence from Abyssinia they, therefore, blithely declare that the Falashas' belief in a Messiah "disproves" their Solomonic origins.

This kind of reasoning is necessary if the facts of history are to be fitted into a preconceived evolutionary pattern.… (Science and Judaism, Agudath Israel of America and the Spero Foundation, New York, 1947, pages 66 - 67, emphasis added.)

But how did Agudath Israel react to the plight of Ethiopian Jews? While willing to use these poor people to support Aguda's apologetics, their usefulness vanished when rescue became necessary. As I reported here last year:

On May 19th, 1981, a delegation from the American Association for Ethiopian Jews met with Rabbi Moshe Sherer, the head of the Agudath Israel World Organization.

Their purpose?

To enlist the help of Agudah in the rescue of Ethiopian Jews.

The AAEJ had every right to expect Agudah's help. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein had already publicly endorsed rescue. So had Israel's Chief Rabbis. Rav Ovadia Yosef was clear and unequivocal in his support. Further, a leader of the Young Israel movement and a supporter of the AAEJ, Rabbi Yaakov Pollack had arranged the meeting with R. Sherer.

But the meeting did not go well.

R. Sherer spent much of the time lecturing the group, and little time listening. He wanted proof of the Ethiopian Jews Jewishness before acting.

What about Rav Moshe Feinstein's ruling? the group asked. R. Sherer brushed aside Rav Moshe's ruling, apparently citing Rav Moshe's advanced age as his reason. The group was stunned.

What of the rulings by the Chief Rabbis? the group asked. Not good enough, R. Sherer replied.

What about Rav Ovadia Yosef? they asked. Surely he is someone who can be relied on? R. Sherer, agreed that Rav Ovadia was a chacham, a wise Torah scholar, but his ruling on Ethiopian Jews was not scholarly enough.

What if Rav Ovadia would rule again, and write a longer, more detailed teshuva? That would be different, R. Sherer replied.

He also suggested the group get a ruling from someone more scholarly like Rav J. B. Soleveitchik, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University.

The group was being hondled by R. Sherer and they knew it.

Nonetheless, the AAEJ sent Rabbi Pollack to Jerusalem to see Rav Ovadia. Not surprisingly, Rav Ovadia handed Rabbi Pollack the same ruling he had issued before because nothing else was needed. (Rav Ovadia was telling R. Sherer in polite rabbinic parlance to stick the teshuvah up his fat Ashkenazi ass.)

Despite Rav Moshe's teshuvah and his 1984 letter calling for immediate rescue, the Agudath Israel World Organization did nothing to help rescue or resettle Ethiopian Jews. (Rav Moshe had correctly wondered what good another teshuva, along with the public letters he had alreadly signed with Rav J. B. Soleveitchik, would do – but he wrote it anyway because we asked him to.)

Less than forty years after the Holocaust, the leaders of haredi Judaism in America refused to listen to their posek (religious law judge) and instead chose to stand by while thousands of Ethiopian Jews died.

If that is not racism, I do not understand the meaning of the word.

It is also interesting to note that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, referred the question of the Ethiopian Jews Jewishness to Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Moshe ruled that the Ethiopian Jews must be saved. The Rebbe, just like R. Moshe Sherer, ignored Rav Moshe's ruling.

[Based on a first-hand report by the AAEJ's president Graenum Berger found on page 694 of his autobiography, published in 1987 by Ktav, and from other contemporaneous sources.]

Worse yet, Rabbi Moshe Sherer was a leader of Agudath Israel of America at the time it published Science and Judaism, gaining leadership in that organization in 1941, and leading Aguda until his death in 1998. Rabbi Sherer was one of the few American-born haredi rabbis active at that time in what was then a small organization. There is no question he saw Science and Torah and approved it before its publication.

Rabbi Sherer – like much of Aguda leadership – was racist. He was also a liar and a rank apologist whose ends almost always justified his means. [His son, Rabbi Shimshon Sherer, takes after him.]

Haredim, led by their Aguda spin-doctors, claim to want to be judged in the free marketplace of ideas. And so they should be. We would not accept lies and racism like this from our politicians. We should not accept it from our rabbis, either.

Make this point clear to your local haredi rabbi the next time he asks you for a donation.

Their purpose?

To enlist the help of Agudah in the rescue of Ethiopian Jews.

The AAEJ had every right to expect Agudah's help. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein had already publicly endorsed rescue. So had Israel's Chief Rabbis. Rav Ovadia Yosef was clear and unequivocal in his support. Further, a leader of the Young Israel movement and a supporter of the AAEJ, Rabbi Yaakov Pollack had arranged the meeting with R. Sherer.

But the meeting did not go well.

R. Sherer spent much of the time lecturing the group, and little time listening. He wanted proof of the Ethiopian Jews Jewishness before acting.

What about Rav Moshe Feinstein's ruling? the group asked. R. Sherer brushed aside Rav Moshe's ruling, apparently citing Rav Moshe's advanced age as his reason. The group was stunned.

What of the rulings by the Chief Rabbis? the group asked. Not good enough, R. Sherer replied.

What about Rav Ovadia Yosef? they asked. Surely he is someone who can be relied on? R. Sherer, agreed that Rav Ovadia was a chacham, a wise Torah scholar, but his ruling on Ethiopian Jews was not scholarly enough.

What if Rav Ovadia would rule again, and write a longer, more detailed teshuva? That would be different, R. Sherer replied.

He also suggested the group get a ruling from someone more scholarly like Rav J. B. Soleveitchik, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshiva University.

The group was being hondled by R. Sherer and they knew it.

Nonetheless, the AAEJ sent Rabbi Pollack to Jerusalem to see Rav Ovadia. Not surprisingly, Rav Ovadia handed Rabbi Pollack the same ruling he had issued before because nothing else was needed. (Rav Ovadia was telling R. Sherer in polite rabbinic parlance to stick the teshuvah up his fat Ashkenazi ass.)

Despite Rav Moshe's teshuvah and his 1984 letter calling for immediate rescue, the Agudath Israel World Organization did nothing to help rescue or resettle Ethiopian Jews. (Rav Moshe had correctly wondered what good another teshuva, along with the public letters he had alreadly signed with Rav J. B. Soleveitchik, would do – but he wrote it anyway because we asked him to.)

Less than forty years after the Holocaust, the leaders of haredi Judaism in America refused to listen to their posek (religious law judge) and instead chose to stand by while thousands of Ethiopian Jews died.

If that is not racism, I do not understand the meaning of the word.

It is also interesting to note that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, referred the question of the Ethiopian Jews Jewishness to Rav Moshe Feinstein. Rav Moshe ruled that the Ethiopian Jews must be saved. The Rebbe, just like R. Moshe Sherer, ignored Rav Moshe's ruling.

[Based on a first-hand report by the AAEJ's president Graenum Berger found on page 694 of his autobiography, published in 1987 by Ktav, and from other contemporaneous sources.]

UPDATED: The Coward Of the J-Blogsphere

Rabbi Gil Student has a popular J-blog known as Hirhurim. Over the past 18 months, Gil has banned commnent from many different commenters, including me. In my case, I have been banned at least three previous times but, as my IP addresses have changed, those bans have become ineffective, and eventually I resumed leaving comments, only to be banned weeks or months later. Each ban has to do with challenges to Rabbi Student's Judaism – challenges Rabbi Student cannot answer.

This is another case in point. Rabbi Student posted about the Taz and Shabbatai Tsvi. Was the Taz a follower of Shabbatai, Rabbi Student asked? He then answered his own question by pointing to research done by Rabbi Elijah Schochet. Rabbi Schochet concludes there is no information that conclusively proves the Taz followed Shabbatai. Therefore, says Rabbi Schochet (a direct descendant of the Taz), the Taz did not.

I pointed out that, a) the Taz sent his son and son-in-law to investigate Shabbatai, and they came back believers; b) the mission to Shabbatai and its conclusion were very public happenings and were well known throughout Poland at that time; c) there is no record of either man retracting that claim; d)  and there is no record of the Taz doing anything to distance himself from the conclusions of his emmisaries. I therefore concluded that the known facts support the idea that the Taz was a Sabbatean believer. Rabbi Student, enraged, wrote "I'm sure we're all glad to get Shmarya['s] official pesak on the history." I responded by challenging him to prove me wrong – if he could. Rabbi Student fell silent.

The next day, Rabbi Student posted on the current controversy over bugs and pre-packaged romaine lettuce. He noted that Rabbi J. David Bleich has pointed out that the a Talmudic passage indicates shepherds used to have much better eyesight than we now have. (Rabbi Bleich is the noted expert on medicine and halakha who, in response to the controversy over metzitza b'peh, announced that the procedure was not dangerous as long as the moshel rinsed his mouth out with schnapps before coming in oral contact with the circumcision wound. The only infectious disease specialist on record supporting this strange notion is a haredi flack with no published papers and no standing in the infectious diesease community.) On that basis, Rabbi Bleich attempts to defend those who call for light boxes and magnification to check romaine lettuce for bugs, things not mandated (or even conceptualized) by the Torah.

I responded, in a thread filled with comments from others attacking the new humrot (stringencies) surrounding bugs and lettuce. I first answered the question, Why did the Star-K not go along with the new humrot?, and then addressed rabbi Bleich's remark about the eyesight of sheperds:

"The only holdout was the star k from all the agencies, why?"

Because the Star-K was paskening according to halakha, not according to the insane humrot concocted by people like yosef. [yosef was advocating special training for every person to check for bugs, just as schochtim and bodkim have to be trained to schecht and check and animal's lungs. Without this "special training," one would not be able to rely on their checking or to eat their salads, etc.]

~~~~~~~~~~~

As for our "worsening eyesight," the Torah permits people to check for bugs who needed glasses but did not have them because glasses did not exist yet. Even so, [Rabbi J. David Bleich] wants us to believe the stories about how far a shepherd could see? Please. Maybe they could see so far because there was little air pollution. Maybe because they were standing on high places looking down. Maybe a dozen other things, including that they really did not see that far.

Go buy your microscopes, get your bug-checking training and throw your sechel out the window.

The result? Rabbi Student banned me without answering the challenge I posed to Rabbi Bleich's reasoning.

Each previous time he banned me, Rabbi Student has announced the ban in response to my comment(s), posting the notice as a comment to his own blog. This time, Rabbi Student did not do so, probably because he has been subjected to much ridicule over these ridiculous bans, and banning me in silence saves him from answering difficult questions about his cowardly behavior.

Rabbi Student is a very public apologist for Orthodox Judaism and a self-identified (left-wing) haredi. As is almost always the case with apologists, they win their debates by slanting the playing field in their own favor. They are cowardly and dishonest. Rabbi Student – and the rabbis he consults with, including those at his old alma mater, Yeshiva University – are no exception.

UPDATE 1: In the comments section below, Rabbi Student responds as follows:

Do you think your being banned this time had anything to do with:

"In my case, I have been banned at least three previous times but, as my IP addresses have changed, those bans have become ineffective, and eventually I resumed leaving comments"

I responded as follows:

1. It took you almost 3 weeks to ban me this time.

2. You did not do so until I posed a challenge you could not answer.

3. If the previous bans were the main reason for this ban, you would have banned me three weeks ago.

But the main point is this: Banning someone whom you cannot answer is cowardly and dishonest. That you do not understand this reflects poorly on you, and it reflects poorly on your teachers – especially the ones that tell you do so.

Rabbi Student replied:

You're complaining that I was too slow to ban you???

No, I did not ban you until someone reminded me by posting that you were banned.

I have no idea what you think your challenge is and whether or not it is unanswerable because I have long tired of reading your questions. Let someone else deal with you.

I'm done defending myself here. Life is too short.

Of course, Rabbi Student is lying. Why? Let me show you:

1. The comment "reminding" Rabbi Student that I was banned was left on 1-11-06 at 12:19 p.m.
2. My last comment on Hirhurim was left on 1-12-06 at 11:56 p.m. – in other words, 36 hours <B><I>after</I></B> this "reminder." What was the comment about? It is about Rabbi J. David Bleich and the vision of shepherds and is quoted in full above.
3. Rabbi Student claims he does not read my comments. Yet on 1-11-06 at 10:10 a.m. Rabbi Student replies directly to my comment on the Taz: "I'm sure we're all glad to get Shmarya['s] official pesak on the history."

Rabbi Student is a liar.

[Here are brief reports of three of the earlier bans: 1, 2, 3. Number three took place during Banned Books Week. Here are the comment threads in question for this newest ban in pdf: Download hirhurim_comments_taz_shabbatai_tsvi_11106.pdf and Download hirhurim_comments_romaine_lettuce_bugs_11206.pdf ]

UPDATE #2: Rabbi Student has posted about the illness of Rav Yitzhak Kaduri, shlit"a, the 104 year old Rosh HaMekkubalim:

Rabbi Kaduri -- Nothing to Fear

It seems the great kabbalist R. Yitzhak Kaduri has been having serious health problems lately. However, he has nothing to fear because the Lubavitcher Rebbe promised him that he would live to see the coming of mashi'ah. Arutz Sheva reported on September 14th of last year:

During a visit in 1990 with the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (of blessed memory), Rabbi Kaduri was told by the Rebbe that he would live to see the coming of the Mashiach.

link

His readers assume sarcasm in the post, and respond with ample sarcasm of thier own. This is understandable because Rabbi Student is an open opponent of Chabad messianism and skeptical of kabbala. In the comment thread, attacks on haredi gedolim, Rav Kaduri, kabbala and the Rebbe flow. Rabbi Student does not ban or edit any of these comments. He simply responds as follows:

This post was not meant to belittle Rav Kaduri or the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Read it and think about it before jumping to conclusions. Or don't.

Rabbi Student was being sarcastic, but he did so in a way that left him the wiggle room to deny it. That is why he did not ban or censor (as of 4:40 pm EST 1-15-06) any of the sarcastic commenters who made fun of "great Torah sages" like the Rebbe and Rav Kaduri, because they are attacking figures he does not really respect. And, much more importantly, those commenters did not post a challenge to Rabbi Student's beliefs that Rabbi Student was unable to answer. Just more proof that the "rabbi" of the J-blogosphere is a dishonest coward.

A video of the visit between Rav Kaduri, shlit"a, and the Rebbe is online here.

For those wishing to pray for Rabbi Kaduri's recovery, his name is Yitzhack ben Tufaha. It is proper to say tehilim (psalms) and to additional mitzvot. For an explanation of this, along with links to online resources, see this post.

UPDATE #3: Rabbi Student is now claiming his post on Rav Kaduri's, shlita, illness was meant to be sarcastic, but the point of his sarcasm was not Rav Kaduri, shlit"a, or the Rebbe – it was those who take their words literally:

To clarify, this post could have been mocking any of three people or groups: Rav Kaduri, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, or those who take these statements way too literally. I think I've already clarified above who was not the intended subject.

In other words, it is an attack on tens of thousands of Jews, made at the expense of an ill man who is at least 104 years old. And that is perfectly fine according to Rabbi Student, because he is not being sarcastic about a gadol (leading rabbi).

What a foolish man.

UPDATE #4: Rabbi Student, apparently responding to this critical comment* by Jeffery R. Woolf, has issued an "update" to his post on Rav Kaduri, shlit"a:

UPDATE: It seems that this post went over a lot of readers' heads. My point was simply not to take such predictions/prayers/blessings as absolute prophecy.

Note that Rabbi Student has not done any of the following:

1. Asked people to pray for Rav Kaduri, shlit"a.
2. Expressed any concern for Rav Kaduri's, shlit"a, health.
3. In any way mention that he hopes Rav Kaduri, shlit'"a, recovers.
4. Mentioned that, in most circles, Rav Kaduri, shlit"a, is very highly regarded.

His original post was taken by the vast majority of his readers to be sarcasm directed at both Rav Kaduri, shlit"a, and the late Lubavitcher Rebbe. His "update" does little to dispel that notion. And, when coupled with the absence of any sympathy or concern for Rav Kaduri's, shlit'a, health, one can only reach the conclusion that Rabbi Student was using the illness of 108-year-old (or more!) man as a point of sarcasm.

[Jeffery R. Woolf wrote: <I>"… I am a bit dismayed by the mocking tone about him. He is a phenomenal [talmid chacham] and a genuine spiritual personality. (Not being an afficionado of Kabbalah, I can't say anything about that side of things). Here in Israel he is regarded as a very special person, whose foray into politics did him no good."</I>]

The Dangers Of Messianism

The London Telegraph reports on the theology behind the madness of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

But listen carefully to the utterances of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad - recently described by President George W Bush as an "odd man" - and there is another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, is giving the Iranian leader a dangerous sense of divine mission.

In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September.

When an aircraft crashed in Teheran last month, killing 108 people, Mr Ahmadinejad promised an investigation. But he also thanked the dead, saying: "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."

The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.

One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.

All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. A common rumour - denied by the government but widely believed - is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.

Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.

He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.

This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse.

What Christians and Muslims believe is not that different from what today's Chabad messianism believes.

Chabad does downplay the apocalyptic angle and prefers to dwell on the preceived good that will come after Menachem Mendel Schneerson's messianic return. But, as believers increasingly become frustrated with their messiah's delay, the urge for violence against non-believers will increase. And as their ranks are swelled by outsiders receptive to violence – non-observant Jews raised in Christian societies who are familiar with the Apocolypse but unrestrained by normative Orthodoxy's rejection of violence; and by right-wing Israeli settlers whose own, often violent messianic dream lies shattered – Chabad's messianism will take on a harder edge. (We have already seen the beginnings of this with the violence surrounding Disengagement, and with pronouncements from leading Chabad messianists labeling the Disengagement Authority "Nazis" and comparing the Disengagement itself to the Holocaust.)

The greatest danger of this messianism is not theological. The greatest danger is when messianism controls a state that has an army and nuclear weapons, as we are now seeing with Iran – or, in an age where it seems almost anyone can own a nuclear weapon, when it resorts to terrorism. As the West works to resolve the problems of Iranian messianism – by necessary use of force, it now appears – we should keep in mind what the not too distant future might bring for us.

Will messianism ever take the reins of power in Israel? Let's hope not.

Head Of Chabad In Russia Messianist

Rabbi Yitzchok Kogan wearing a "Yechi" yarmulke

Tzemach Atlas points out that Rabbi Yitzchok Kogan, the head of Agudas Chassidei Chabad in Russia, is a messianist.

Gematria And Messianism

Most of us have heard some of Chabad's 'proofs' for the messianic status of the late Rebbe. One of my favorites is achieved with gematria, the numerology many Orthodox Jews believe God coded into the Hebrew language. The numerical value of "beit mashiakh" (house of the messiah) is 770, which just happens to be both the address and the name of the main Chabad synagogue in Crown Heights. This little oddity isn't much of a proof, but it does have a certain effect on believers.

But gematria has a rather checkered past. Its name is Greek and its origin is Babylonian – not Jewish. Greeks were using this system for occult practice years before Jews were. Indeed, it seems Jews picked it up through contact with the Greeks, although it may have entered Judaism during the Babylonian exile. Either way, it is not by origin a Jewish concept.

Philologos reports:

Gematria does not begin with the rabbis, though, nor even with the Greeks; its earliest use on record is Babylonian, and it occurs in an inscription dating from the reign of Sargon II (727-707 BCE), saying that he built the wall of the city of Khorsabad to be 16,283 cubits in length because that was the number equaled by the letters of his name — the full, honorific form of which was much longer. From the Babylonians, gematria spread to the Greeks, who called it isopsepha (equal counting) and used it widely for magical and occult purposes.

But it was in medieval Judaism that gematria was most systematically employed for a wide variety of religious purposes, ranging from halachic reasoning to kabbalistic theosophy to messianic speculations on the times and dates of redemption. The 17th-century messianic movement of Sabbatianism, built around the figure of purported messiah Sabbatai Zevi, resorted to gematria repeatedly in its efforts to prove that the latter was indeed the Redeemer. Thus, for example, finding in the ancient midrashic compilation of Genesis Rabba the statement that the biblical verse in the account of Creation, "... and the spirit of the Lord hovered over the face of the water," alluded to the spirit of the messiah, Zevi's followers calculated that the Hebrew letters of "the Lord" and "hovered" equaled those of his name.

Needless to say, if one takes enough biblical verses and does enough calculations with them, it always will be possible to find some word or combination of words that will yield the desired results.

A major proponent of gematria was the Ari, Rabbi Isaac Luria, the 16th century "mystic" whose system of kabbala was "taught" to him in "night visions" by "Elijah the Prophet." The Ari changed traditional kabbala which had roots going back to at least the first century CE, superimposing his new doctrines where it was possible, and scrapping older teaching where it was not. The Ari was opposed by the majority of kabbalists living at that time, but the Ari's "system" became dominant anyway. Why?

Because, before the Ari, kabbala was only taught to a few select students, usually by a master who taught one or two students at a time, and whose lessons stretched over many years. Indeed, this was the halakhic way to teach kabbala. The Ari, claiming "Elijah the Prophet" as his source, began to teach the secrets of kabbala openly to many students – many of whom would not have otherwise merited to learn it. It was this anarchy and these students who spread the Ari's (or is that "Elijah's"?) teachings worldwide.

An example of the difference between the two schools: Early kabbala envisioned an ancient universe, far older than 6000 years, with worlds created an destroyed in the process. (Their understanding of "created and destroyed" is similar to upheavals like the beginning or ending of an ice age or a major volcanic eruption like Toba, rather than repeated Big Bangs.) The Ari allegorized these ideas, claiming that those worlds "created and destroyed" were completely spiritual, and that the entire creation (in today's measure) is less than 6000 years old. We know who was right on this point.

As Philologos notes, Sabbatians made extensive use of gematria to "prove" that Shabbatai Tsvi was the messiah. Gematria was also used by the nascent hasidic movement to validate its theology and leadership. And that brings us back to 770, the "house of the messiah."

Chabad's messianic foolishness (or heresy, depending on one's view) is an outgrowth of both Lurianic and Sabbatian theology, the first intentional, the second not. Shabbatai Tsvi's followers raised Lurianic kabbala to new prominence. Even the unlettered were fond of dabbling in its mysteries. Rabbis across the world gave kabbalistic sermons influenced by Shabbatai Tsvi's teachings. When it became clear that Shabbatai Tsvi was not the messiah, Lurianic kabbala fell out of favor with the masses. But teachers of the "new wisdom" continued to hold classes and give kabbalistic sermons, some still using Shabbatai Tsvi's kabbalistic teachings and some not. It was from that group of "mystics" that the Baal Shem Tov came. Indeed, many of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation leaders of the new hasidic movement cherished books of kabbala that have been proved to be Sabbatian in origin, although it seems likely most were unaware of this – just as many Chabadniks are unaware of the very checkered history of their "house of the messiah." 

Brawl Breaks Out At Chief Rabbi's Daughter's Wedding

Gotta' love the Amar family. First, Rabbi Amar's son Meir, long estranged from the father but still close to his mother, kidnaps his sister Ayala's suitor – a haredi youth from Bnei Brak – and beats and tortures him in Rabbi Amar's house. Why? To break up the relationship. Rabbi Amar's wife Mazal is home during the incident but does not call the police or do anything to protect the boy. She later admits to this in court, along with admitting to falsifying a police report. She gets off, apparently due to her political connections. Meir gets a light sentence – two years and eight months. Rabbi Amar was on one of his numerous overseas trips during the kidnapping, so he was not charged.

Flash forward a few months. Ayala is getting married to a man her family approves of. (Gotta' wonder if she is doing this of her own free will, or if she was coerced.) A who's who of Israeli religious and political figures attend the wedding including President Moshe Katsav. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is the mesader kedushin (performer of the ceremony). And what happens? Some of Rabbi Amar's guests behave very badly. Y-net reports:

A brawl broke out at a Jerusalem synagogue between some of the guests and a number of waiters towards the end of the wedding of Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar's daughter Ayala.

Police arrested two of the guests, and their custody will be extended by the court on Thursday.

The police's investigation found that at around 23:30, one of the guests attacked an Arab waiter and broke a bottle over his head. Shortly afterwards, another waiter accidentally touched the shoulder of another guest, who responded by allegedly striking the waiter.

A brawl broke out and one of the managers called the police, who arrested two of the guests after separating between them and the waiters.

Rabbis as leaders of the Jewish people. My my.

Understanding Chabad

There is much confusion about what Chabad believes about the late Rebbe. It is commonly thought there are two factions within the movement, one that believes the Rebbe is the messiah even in death, and one that rejects that belief. However, this is both false and misleading.

Chabad breaks down into two main factions. The first believes it is proper and necessary to publicize the Rebbe's status as the messiah. The second believes such publicity harms the movement and weakens its fundraising and outreach. The first faction is commonly known as the "messianists," in Hebrew, the "meshichistin." The second are the "anti-messianists," or "anti-meshichistin." Both factions believe the Rebbe is the messiah. They dispute what should be done regarding this belief.

[MP, a Chabad reader and critic of this blog, has pointed out that some anti-messianists may believe that mandating publicity about the Rebbe being the messiah distorts the Rebbe's policies, but any individual who believes in publicizing the Rebbe's status as messiah is free to do so as long as it is not done in a way that mandates others to do the same. Note that the issue here is distorting the Rebbe's policy, not whether or not the late Rebbe is the messiah.]

A more extreme splinter group from the messianists believe the late Rebbe is literally God, and believe it is their duty to publicize this fact. They are known as Elokistim, and are few in number.

There are also a small number of Chabadniks who believe the Rebbe is not the messiah, and all of this is a tragic error that is hurting Chabad.

And then there is the average attendee at Chabad Houses and shuls outside Crown Heights and Kfar Chabad. He will tell you he doesn't believe the Rebbe is the messiah – or that he does, in the sense that it is possible the rebbe is. Either way, he'll tell you there is a gemara somewhere that supports this belief. He won't identify with the mesianists (unless his rabbi does).

In the last several years a new theology of sorts has been constructed. It posits that the late Rebbe was and is the  "highest" most refined human being ever to have lived. While not God Himself, he is the closest to God. He may also be the messiah – or not. It really doesn't matter because, if the Rebbe is not the messiah, he is still "higher" than the messiah and closer to God than the messiah. When the messiah comes, Chabadniks will follow the Rebbe who will lead them to Redemption. (I heard this directly from several Chabadniks, including Rabbi Manis Friedman.)*

This new theology has a big advantage – it allows a Chabadnik to say that he does not believe the Rebbe is the messiah, and to do so while telling the truth.

What Chabad has done is redefine the terms of the debate, making those terms meaningless. If the Rebbe will "lead us to the Redemption," is "higher" than any other person who ever lived (including Moses!)1, he has taken a position unheard of in Judaism and superceded the normative understanding of the Redemption and the Messianic Age.

More troubling is the theology – accepted by all Chabad "streams" – that the dead Rebbe answers prayers and gives advice and blessings. This has led some to pray directly to the late Rebbe.

Also, accepted across the board is a Rebbe-centric form of practice, of which the late Rebbe "answering" prayers and the like is a part. Everything a Chabad hasid does – from learning, to prayer, to outreach – goes "through" the Rebbe. He is the focus of everything, the point of entry and the point of departure. As a friend noted, "A Chabad hasid may pray to God, but that is only because the Rebbe told him to."

This Chabad theology is a beefed-up variant of the original hasidic doctrine of the tzaddik.2,3

Rabbi Dr. David Berger has devoted much effort to confronting Chabad messianism. But he has failed to deal with the Rebbe-centric theology at the heart of the movement. This seems to be because Rabbi Berger is an academic specializing in Christian-Jewish disputation, and the issue of the second coming – shared by Chabad with Christianity – is central to that study.

But there is also more. Dr. Berger knows that, if the second coming theology is accepted in Judaism, there is nothing left to separate us from Christianity except mitzva observance.4 But increasingly, messianic Jewish groups are taking on mitzvot as part of their practice. Perhaps what Dr. Berger fears is the day in the not too distant future when messianic Jews and messianic Chabad sit side-by-side with Hadassah, Amit Women, and the Reform and Conservative movements around the Federation table.

It is Rebbe-centric theology, or Rebbeism, lies at the heart of the problem with Chabad.5 It is the root of its messianism and, more than messianism itself, that poses the greatest threat to Judaism as it has been practiced for almost 2000 years.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

1. Heard directly from Rabbi Manis Friedman.
2. Which is why the hasidic-dominated Moetzet Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel has been silent on this issue, even though most members of the Moetzet are known privately to be very opposed to Chabad and to its Rebbeism and Messianism.
3. Or, at least, it is a beefed-up variant of the version of that doctrine as it is commonly known today. Some of the early generations of the hasidic movement may have approached this level of Rebbe-centrism. It is important to realize that the Tzemach Tzedek, the third Lubavitcher Rebbe, said that what kept the hasidic movement from outright heresy was the opposition of the Gra.
4. And, when one considers that Reform does not consider itself to be bound by mitzvot, and that secular groups now sit at the Federation table, one can quickly appreciate how important rejection of the second coming is to those who worry about Messianic Jews infiltrating the community.
5. A satire of this can be found here.

*Reader MP claims this view is nothing more than the 200-year-old doctrine of hitkashrut, connection, with the tzaddik, and is not new. Please see footnote #2 and the relevant paragraph in the post for perspective on this.

UPDATE: Eight Wounded In Knife Attack In Moscow Synagogue

Rabbi Yitzchok Kogan

Ha'aretz is reporting a knife attack on a Moscow synagogue. Anybody know more?

UPDATE: The attacker seems to be a skinhead. Lubavitch News is reporting Rabbi Yitzchok Kogan, perhaps the most beloved figure in all of Russian Orthodox Judaism is the rabbi of the synagogue and himself disarmed the assailant. The rabbis son-in-law was seriously wounded by the attacker.

UPDATED: OK Kosher Behaving Badly; Crown Heights-Based Agency Bullies Competition

Here is a small example of how kashrut agencies misrepresent kashrut. This alert from the Crown Heights-based OK, if not clarified by the editor of kashrut.com, would lead one to believe the restaurant in question is not kosher supervised, and that the restaurant management had done something very wrong – pretend to have kosher supervision when in fact it did not:

    The following kashrus notice is from the OK dated January 4, 2006.

    Please be advised that KOHN'S RESTAURANT in St Louis, MI is not under the OK Kosher supervision. This company is unauthorized.

Would you eat there even if you saw a different kosher symbol displayed? Probably not. Who's to say the new symbol is not forged as well. Ah! But we have the editor's note:

ed. note: Simon Kohn's Restaurant in St. Louis, MO is under the OV (The Vaad Hoeir of St. Louis).

What we appear to have is a community restaurant under the supervision of the community va'ad – just as it should be. Did Kohn's claim to have OK supervision? Most likely not. The alert probably results from confusion due to the similar symbols – OV vs. OK. And the OH certainly knew this before it issued an "alert" designed to damage Kohn's business. Why would the OK do this? To exert pressure on Kohn's to pay for OK supervision or to hurt the OV, which supervises salads and other products sold nationally, or both.

Unless Kohn's knowingly misused the OK symbol, what the OK did is a clear violation of halakha. In a better world, the OK would pay a price for this bad behavior. But this is not that world.

UPDATE: I spoke with Kohn's. They had menu boards up that used the following logo: K-O-H-N-S, with each letter surrounded by a circle. When a new menu was printed, the designer took the K with the circle and used it as part of the menu's logo, but did not use the other letters. What Kohn's did was inadvertently use the OK's symbol, and the OK has the legal right – and the responsibility – to defend its trademark.

That being said, the OK could have done this as it does for so many of its paying clients who inadvertently misuse the OK symbol – note the misuse as inadvertent and, in this case, note the restaurant is under other supervision. This would be the correct way – the halakhic way – to do this. But, as clearly seen above, the OK took the low road, and for that, it should be chastised.

UPDATE #2: Here is how a similar issue was handled by the Star-K:

The following change of certification is from the Star-K on January 4, 2006.

JEFF NATHAN EVENTS, located in Temple Beth El, New Rochelle, NY, has changed certification from the Star-K to the Vaad of Westchester.

The OK could have done something similar with Kohn's, noting the OK symbol was used in error, inadvertently, and pointing out Kohn's continues to be under the supervision of the OV.

Where Is Chabad Heading?

Marvin Schick has an op-ed in yesterday's Jerusalem Post entitled "Where is Chabad heading?" Schick points out the degradation of halakhic observance so common to Chabad Houses today, and laments the lack of serious discussion within Chabad about this. He also notes the use of celebrities whose connection to Jewish-halakhic observance is often severely lacking. He points out that Alan Derschowitz, a key speaker at Chabad's shluchim (rabbi representatives) conference this year is a proponent of intermarriage.

I would add that Chabad's Crown Heights-based Jewish Children's Museum's annual fundraising dinner had the actor Jeff Goldblum as its honoree. Goldblum has been intermarried, is currently inter-dating with plans for marriage, has no connection to anything Jewish, told reporters he could not understand why he was honored because he had done nothing meritorious, certainly nothing Jewish, that would merit it.

And then we have US Senator Norm Coleman (R, MN), a kind and good man, who is very publicly married to a Catholic woman. Norm, when he was mayor of St. Paul, was honored with lighting Chabad's giant public menorah. I find it hard to believe the Rebbe would have allowed this.

I used to frequent a Chabad House where, on Shabbat, at least 1/3, and often much more, of the minyan drove to shul and parked in the shul parking lot. This was all done very publicly. The rabbi knew. Everyone else knew. And yet, every week the rabbi made sure to ask the same men to come. They all lived too far to walk. Two men used to drive in from 15 miles away on Shabbat morning, daven, eat cholent, and then drive home in the early afternoon. Without these men, Chabad had no minyan. It is this type of flagrant disregard for halakha that Schick is concerned with.

Over and over again, the halakhic standards enforced within the movement 20 years ago are falling by the wayside. When coupled with Chabad's messianism (a topic Schick does not even touch on), and its redefinition of Judaism as Rebbeism (and by this I mean the idea that everything done or believed is done or believed primarily because of the Rebbe, and good a person experiences comes from the active blessings of the Rebbe), one finds a dangerous situation. In many ways Chabad is like the Conservative movement, a neo-Orthodox grouping almost indistinguishable from Orthodoxy, with congregations made up of largely non-observant congregants but led by observant rabbis. But those early Conservative rabbis would not have asked Jews to drive on Shabbat to make their minyans, and they would not have honored intermarried Jews. (Those innovations came much later.) And the Conservative movement did not have a dead messianic figure.

It is this flagrant disregard for halakha that in large part endears Chabad to non-observant Jews. So little is expected of them other than affiliation. I have seen these Jews get aliyot on Shabbat and Yom Tov while wearing cell phones, with pockets full of change and car keys, and pens clipped to their shirt pockets. And these are not first-time visitors to Chabad.

As more and more non-observant Jews become connected with this new, post-Rebbe Chabad, Chabad moves further away from normative halakhic observance. Where will this all lead? In twenty years, maybe even less, America will have two viable Jewish movements – Reform and Chabad. Neither will be Orthodox as the term has been defined for the last 200 years. One of them will be humanist but moving toward tradition. The other will be messianic and moving steadily away from tradition. And where this will lead, nobody knows.

The Beating Of Chana Gourary

Tzemach Atlas links to a post on CrownHeights.info that contains links to audio files of a farbrengen (informal talk within a hasidic gathering) given by the titular head of worldwide Chabad, Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky. In this talk Rabbi Krinsky admits the Rebbe's sister-in-law, the eldest daughter of the sixth rebbe, was beaten and blinded by a Lubavitcher rabbinical student (second audio file about 1/3 of the way in), admits that Chabad did everything in its power to stop the Rebbe from being deposed by a New York court regarding his incitement of that incident, and frequently refers to the grandson of the sixth Lubavitcher rebbe, Barry Gourary, as the "sitra achra."

For those who do not know, "sitra achra" is a kabbalist term that denotes the evil "force" opposite the goodly "force" of God's will. In hasidic street usage, "sitra achra" would be the equivalent of the devil and its opposite would be God. (In truth, the evil "force" is controlled by God, too – it is what allows us to have freedom of choice by choosing good over evil.) While unspoken, the problem is Rabbi Krinsky uses the term in a way that shows the polarity is different here: Barry Gourary is the devil and the Rebbe is God.

Rabbi Krinsky also admits that the oldest son-in-law of the sixth rebbe, known as the Rashag, was often ridiculed by Lubavitcher rabbinical students – including Rabbi Krinsky – during the early years of the Rebbe's leadership. As I saw personally, this continued into the 1980's.

It also should be noted that the sixth rebbe's library, the source of the dispute that led to the beating, contains many interesting secular books collected personally by the sixth rebbe beginning when he was still a child. Included were editions of Sherlock Holmes in Yiddish and other works of fiction. Chabad, despite what Rabbi Krinsky says on the audio files, could not go to an independent beit din (religious court), because no independent beit din would have awarded the library to them. The secular court was untroubled by the normative Jewish law regarding inheritance, and by the presence of secular books – which by the estimates I've seen made up a large part of the collection. A beit din would have awarded those books – all of them – to the surviving male heir, the sixth rebbe's grandson, Barry Gourary. And so, Chabad did what haredim so often do – whatever was most convenient.

Why The Baby Doctor Supports Metzitza B'peh

Stephen I. Weiss interviews one of the two pediatricians pimped by haredim who claim metzitza b'peh, the oral suctioning of the open cirumcision wound by the mohel, is not dangerous. Here's what Dr. Robert Adler has to say:

"I’ve spoken to infectious disease experts…even though the bulk of” them think it’s dangerous, “the ones who are like triple professors” have told him it’s not a problem.”

As I noted there, generally speaking, according to halakha (Jewish law), from this quote alone MBP should be suspended. If the majority of infectious disease specialists think it’s dangerous, then it must be stopped.

The only exception may be if his “triple professors” are really at the top of this field, and are not outweighed by other infectious disease specialists also at the top of the field. But this seems unlikely based on the infectious disease specialists who have already come out against MBP.

This should be further proof that haredim are not pursuing this honestly. At the very least, they should be calling for a temporary suspension of MBP. But they are not.

[Related stories are posted here. Please scroll to the bottom of the page and read upward. Thank you.]

Abramoff In Good Company

Jeff Jacoby, disturbed by the effect of Jack Abramoff's misdeeds on the Orthodox community, writes:

Honesty in financial dealings is not optional in Judaism; it is mandatory. The Talmud teaches that when a person is brought to judgment in the world-to-come, the first question the heavenly tribunal puts to him is: "Did you conduct your business affairs in good faith?" A Jew who takes the values of his religion seriously must be scrupulous in his transactions with others. To be sure, even the saintliest people — not to mention the rest of us — sometimes fall short of the values they profess. But Abramoff's criminal deeds and sleazy manner are a lot worse than mere lapses in judgment. One who behaves so unethically and illegally drags more than his own reputation through the mud. He is an embarrassment to his religion and his community, and that comes close to being unforgivable.

Please wait a moment while I recover from side-splitting laughter.

According to some rabbinic opnions, "honesty in financial dealings" is mandated by Judaism only between Jews. "Goyyim" are open season, with one caveat – do not get caught. In fact, you can find a number of prominent Orthodox rabbis with a past steeped in criminal fraud – a partial list would include Leib Pinter, and Gershon Tannenbaum of Igud HaRabbonim. We would also have S.Z. "Jimmy"Gurary (US Supreme Court.pdf) of Agudath Chasidei Chabad and Sternberg his son-in-law, Moshe Rubashkin of the (in)famous Rubashkin family and the Crown Heights Community Council (please see the left sidebar of this page). Now, add to this list the non-rabbis.

Jacoby may not know this. Or he may be writing propaganda. Either way, Abramoff is not alone.

PRAY

As the Prime Minister's condition appears to be deteriorating, prayers and other good deeds are all that we can do for him. Please pray that Ariel ben Vera (Ariel the son of Vera) have a complete and speedy recovery.

Lakewood Cop Smear Continues

The TriTown News writes about what appears to be the truth behind the newest charges against the Lakewood poice officer who arrested Rabbi Bursztyn seven months ago:

A third possibility, and the one to which we are leaning, is that having seen the incident that involved Menck in June, someone is watching his actions very carefully and looking for a way to cause the officer public embarrassment and to bring pressure to bear on him. The news of the Robinson affair is interesting but strikes us as a bit too convenient.

As I clearly demonstrated, the "someone" referred to by the TriTown News are Lakewood haredi leaders. As for the newest case against the police officer, all known facts support his version of events and refute every version Robinson's ever-changing story.

The only just ending to this story will be for indictments to be filed against the haredi leaders who have worked so hard to smear Officer Menck. But will that happen?

Lakewood's new mayor is haredi, and the township council itself does not want to stir up more trouble. If the council backs down, Officer Menck will be left in a situation where he will have to watch his back everytime he does his job, always fearing new, trumped up charges against him. No one can work under conditions like that for long. Haredim are counting on that, engineering the day when Officer Menck will leave Lakewood, hoping to leave haredi harrasment behind. Haredim will view this destruction of an innocent man as a victory. The rest of us should view it for what it really is – sickening behavior from medieval thugs.

New Herpes Circumcision Link?

Buried in the Forward's report on Lakewood is this frightening note:

Earlier this year, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a study showing that the Orthodox community used a disproportionate amount of the school district's special-education resources.

One of the great fears of those who are trying to ban metzitza b'peh, the dangerous oral suctioning of the circumcision wound practiced by many haredim, is an increased rate of learning disabled boys whose brain damage from the herpes virus was not severe enough to be noticed at the time of infection. This "sub-clinical" brain damage, the theory goes, surfaces later as learning disabilites and other related conditions.

Is haredi Lakewood's rate of learning disabilites as judged by their dispropotionate use of resources an indication this theory – promoted by Rabbi Moshe Tendler – is true? It may very well be.

Satmar Admits NYC Vote Deal – Haredim Use Holocaust To Threaten Bloomberg

Three haredi rabbis enter Gracie Mansion, Thursday, January 5, 2006.
[Photo: Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times.]

In a shocking admission reported in today's New York Times, the Brooklyn-based Satmar-controlled Yiddish language newspaper Der Blatt has admitted a quid-pro-quo deal with NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg. Reached just before the November mayoral election, the deal was to allow metzitza b'peh, the oral-to-genital-suctioning of the circumcision wound, to continue unabated despite its clear links to transmission of neonatal herpes, a disease that is sometimes fatal and that often causes brain damage. In return, Satmar and other hasidic and haredi groups would vote as a block for Bloomberg. Der Blatt writes:

"What has been promised to us prior to the recent elections - and this was the only request we made - was that the subject of metzitzah b'peh should be completely untouched by the city department of health," the editorial said. "This and only this was the reason why thousands of Orthodox Jews registered themselves to vote, undersigned a petition to the mayor, came out in droves, men, women and children, to an unprecedented rally."

So now the haredim are crying foul after NYC's heath commissioner issued an unprecedented warning about the dangers of MBP:

The dispute, which had the mayor trying to calm rabbinical leaders at Gracie Mansion yesterday in what his aides called a frank exchange, has put Mr. Bloomberg in the rare position of balancing a key constituency against the policies of one of his most trusted commissioners. And it occurs against the backdrop of the roiling ethnic politics of New York, with Orthodox leaders having threatened to disrupt the mayor's inauguration last Sunday by wearing yellow stars like the ones Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. …

A key force behind this disgusting behavior is Rabbi David Niederman, whose Satmar-controlled CRC beit din (religious court) had promised to investigate the mohel linked to three herpes cases, Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, and return a verdict by December 1st. When this did not happen, and when two weeks passed without any word from Rabbi Niederman, the health commissioner issued his letter warning Jews of the danger. (Strangely, the New York Times fails to mention this well-publicized, verified connection.) Rabbi Niederman is also playing the race card:

"We chose America because of religious freedom. That's why we are here," Rabbi Niederman said this week in an interview at City Hall. "There is no compromise on this issue, because we know it is safe."

But the most telling admission in this is what may be the new delaying tactic approved by Bloomberg – a committee of physicians, some who oppose MBP and some (there are only a handful of these) who support it, who will work together to find "common ground."

But how can common ground be found when the facts are these:

[NYC's health commissioner] Dr. Frieden said his hand was forced when his department discovered the new cases of neonatal herpes - one coming in the spring, the other, in which the infant suffered brain damage, coming in October - and conclusively determined that they and the earlier cases were caused by metzitzah b'peh.

Yet, the city is refusing to act, and backtracking from its earlier position:

[Dr. Frieden] emphasized that the city had no plans to take more aggressive action against the procedure. "I really have bought into the worldview that says for some part of the community metzitzah b'peh is integral to circumcision, and circumcision is integral to being Jewish," he said.

In other words, Bloomberg and Company have caved in to haredi blackmail and vote selling.

Bloomberg has also promised haredim something else he cannot deliver on, unless he is willing to sacrifice more defenseless children on the alter of Ba'al:

And, in a message heard loud and clear by rabbinical leaders, Mr. Bloomberg said on his radio program, "It is not the government's business to tell people how to practice their religion," although he also promised, "We're going to do a study, and make sure that everyone is safe."

Such a "study" will have to allow MBP to continue, perhaps for several years, and several more tragidies.

A couple months ago, Christopher Hitchens, the widely read influential columnist, noted that Bloomberg is very ready to "protect" adults from their legal vices, but has totally dropped the ball in the case of defensless babies:

"He has made it legally impossible to have a cigarette and a cocktail at the same time, anywhere in the city," fumed the writer Christopher Hitchens on Slate in August. "I'll trade him his stupid prohibitionist ban if he states clearly that it is the government's business to protect children from religious fanatics."

I doubt Hitchens will get what he's asking for. Why? Because normal, educated adults do not vote in massive blocks under the direction of rabbis – rabbis who wear large black hats to cover their tiny minds.

[Previous circumcision stories are posted here. As always, please scroll down to the bottom of the page and read the posts from the bottom up.]

Lakewood Gets First Haredi Mayor As Tensions Grow Between Haredim And Non-Jews; Info Confirming Circumcision Risk Found In Lakewood?

The Forward reports:

Earlier this month the sensitivity of the Orthodox community came to the fore after a local black reverend wrote an opinion essay in the Asbury Park Press, complaining about the "great disparity and favoritism of the Lakewood Township Committee's preferential treatment toward the Orthodox Jewish community."

In response, the Lakewood Vaad issued a ban on speaking to the Asbury Park newspaper.

Community groups have been claiming for several years that the Orthodox receive more than their fair share of municipal services. In 2003, a public school advocacy group sued the Lakewood Board of Education for providing gender-separated bussing to students attending Orthodox Jewish day schools. That suit was dismissed.

Earlier this year, the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union released a study showing that the Orthodox community used a disproportionate amount of the school district's special-education resources. [Perhaps this is due to the high incidence of metzitza b'peh, the dangerous oral suctioning of the open circumcision wound practiced by many haredim, including in Lakewood. MBP is known to transmit herpes, causing brain damage and even death. -- FM] Those findings are being investigated by the state department of education.

Several of Lakewood's non-Jewish leaders rejected the claim that the Orthodox community received preferential treatment. But they did say that the Orthodox community had organizational capabilities that no other ethnic group in Lakewood possesses.

"When low-income housing becomes available, they know how to get it," said Reverend Gary Stiegler, president of the Lakewood Clergy Association, a group of some 30 local religious leaders, which Orthodox leaders have declined to join. "It's not as much their problem as those who don't know how to do it."

Stiegler said that for the congregants at his Lutheran church, the cohesion of the Orthodox community is unnerving because of the swift way in which new Orthodox Jews have come to Lakewood, totally changing the character of streets and neighborhoods in a few years.

"Is there some way that the Orthodox community could begin to sense in some small way what it is like to live in a town where everything has changed since your childhood?" Stiegler asked. "My sense is that they really don't care what we think."

And now Lakewood has its first haredi mayor, not such a big deal because the mayor isn't elected – he's chosen by his fellow councilmen. For the full report on that, read on.

Fundamentalist Folly, #2

A who's who list of Israeli right wing extremist rabbis have taken "credit" for Ariel Sharon, sheyikhye's, illness.  These rabbinic low-lifes enacted a "pulsa d'nura" ceremony, a pseudo-kabbalistic death incantation "ritual" with ancient pretensions but thoroughly modern roots, before the Gaza withdrawal in order to fell Sharon and stop the withdrawal. They failed. But now, months later, they are claiming "victory." Among the leading figures of this repulsive group is Rabbi Yosef Dayan, who supposed "lineage" gives him "continuous" patralineal Davidic descent. This makes him very attractive to the new "sanhedrin" – among whom is the "sanhedrin's" "nasi" (president), Chabad Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. "Sanhedrin" members have been touting Rabbi Dayan as the future "king of Israel." Here is a quote from the "future king":

"This is a great day for Israel since that evil man is gone." Dayan said. "I am convinced that God heard the prayers of the children in Gush Katif. When those kids were thrown from their homes they prayed and God heard their prayers."

Perhaps Rabbi Steinsaltz may want to use his power as "nasi" to expel the "future king" from the "sanhedrin."

But this is not all that is happening on the fundamentalist front. The Jerusalem Post reports on rabbis who have refused to pray for Sharon's recovery. Among them:

• Rabbi Avigdor Halevi Nebenzahl, rabbi of Jerusalem's Old City, who told the extensive school system he heads not to pray for Sharon.
• Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Safed and son of former Sephardi chief rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu, who issued a legal ruling (teshuva) not to pray for Sharon.

But some more "moderate" rabbis said it was fine to pray for Sharon's recovery. But pay attention to why they say it is okay to pray for Sharon:

Rabbi Ya'acov Ariel, chief rabbi of Ramat Gan, also said that prayers should be said for Sharon.

"Notwithstanding what he has done in the past year, Sharon is a Jew who has done a lot of good for his people," said Ariel, who is a former head of a yeshiva in Gush Katif, Gaza. "There is no danger that Sharon will come back and serve as prime minister, so why not pray for him?"

Besides the obvious theological problem with Rabbi Ariel's implied assertion that God could not fully heal Sharon, Rabbi Ariel has made himself clear: If there were a real chance of Sharon returning to public life, prayers for his recovery would be wrong.

Conspicuously absent from the public discussion have been former chief rabbis Modechai Eliyahu and Avraham Kahana Shapira, who have manged to say nothing on the matter, even though they regularly pontificate on public issues. Both were severe critics of Sharon and the Gaza withdrawal, and both behaved very badly in the process. Not stepping forward now to ask Jews to pray for Sharon is tantamount to telling them not pray, a fact both rabbis are certainly aware of.

Orthodoxy is broken, not because of external pressures or repression. It is broken because of the failure of the rabbis who lead it. Such big hats. Such tiny minds.

Fundamentalist Folly

I had hoped not to post anything today, except for the post immediately below this on what we can and should do now for Ariel Sharon, sheyikhye. But three related stories have driven me to post.

In the first, Christian evangelical Pat Robertson contends* Ariel Sharon's current illness is "punishment from God" meted out because of the Gaza withdrawal. In the second, Iran's president calls for Sharon's death. In the third, Sefad's chief rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, son of former Sefardic chief rabbi of Israel Mordechai Eliyahu, refuses to pray for Ariel Sharon because of the Gaza withdrawal.

The common thread that links the three besides gross stupidity? They are all fundamentalists.

Something to think about on this very sad day.

*[Sure, he does say "may be." But doing this at the very moment that Sharon fights for his life is at the very least in poor taste. Perhaps the Rev. Robertson's stupidity and his tendency to make tone-deaf, ill-timed pronouncements "may be" punishments from God, as well.]

What Can We Do For Ariel Sharon, Sheyikhye?

What is the proper response to Ariel Sharon's illness? The Israeli Chief Rabinate has asked all Jews regardless of affilliation to say tehillim (psalms) for General Sharon, specifically chapters 6, 20, 121, 130 & 142. (But any chapter[s] will do just fine; say what you can.) The entire Book of Tehillim is online in both Hebrew and English.

Studying Torah is also important. Online versions of the Babylonian Talmud can be found in Hebrew with other extensive study aids in English, and in English translation without notes or study aids. The Kitzur Shulkhan Arukh ([very] abridged code of Jewish law) is online in a bilingual edition. Rabbi Chaim Jachter has extensive essays (similar to responsa) on various aspects of practical Jewish law online in English. And, last but not least, the entire Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) is online in Hebrew and in English.

It is also customary to give tzedaka (charity). Any amount is fine. Do what you can.

Doing good deeds is also important. Perhaps you can find an elderly person or a shut-in to visit. Certainly there are many people who need assistance in myriads of ways – find one that is right for you and do it.

A simple heartfelt prayer offered in any language, either within the Refaenu blessing of the Amidah prayer or as a stand-alone at any time, is very appropriate.

May God grant Ariel Sharon a full and speedy recovery.

Marc Shapiro On The Age Of The Universe

…[T]he entire received body of knowledge in just about every field of human study is dependant on the fact that the world is not 5000 years old and that there was not a flood. These facts are the fundamentals of biology, physics, astronomy, history, anthropology, geology, paleontology, zoology, linguistics, etc.

Belief in a 5000 year old world and a flood which destroyed the world 4000 years ago is a denial of all human knowledge as we know it.…

The Evil Of Harediism

GodolHador reports the on following quote attributed to Rabbi Shimshon Sherer, the son of the (in)famous leader of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Moshe Sherer:

This past shabbos I heard R. Shimshi Sherer (R. Moshe Sherer's son) speak at a shalasheudes. He asked why do we say "ve-al ha-milchamos" [and on the wars] in the al hanissim [prayer said during Hanukka]. shouldn't we remember the victory but not the milchama [war]? Says R. Sherer, quoting, IIRC the Nesivas Shalom (ironically) that the reason is because the "milchama" [war] is not yet over.* We continue to fight the misyavnim [Greeks].

And don't think, said R. Sherer, that the misyavnim [Greeks] of today are the Reform or Conservative. No, they're the Modern Orthodox rabbis (verbatim quote) who want to chepper [mess with] with bris milah and shabbos!

Wake up, people! Haredim are your enemies.

* [Read the series of posts titled The Little Menorah That Didn't #1 #2 #3 #4 for the actual reason.]

The Little Menorah That Didn't, #4

Toward A Unified Theory Of Hanukka Candle Lighting And An Accurate Dating Of The "Miracle Of Oil"

As we have seen, the "Miracle of Oil" often given as the reason for Hanukka candle lighting did not take place. It is a later myth with no historical basis. So, why this myth? Where and when did it come from?

As Hasmoneans became Hellenized, they celebrated the Roman holiday of Saturnalia, centered around the winter solstice. Observance of this pagan holiday seems to have eventually spread throughout most of the Jewish community.

Saturnalia's  7 day candle lighting often coincided with part of Hanukka. This may have caused the populace to confuse the two celebrations, much in the way many American Jews in our times had "Hanukka bushes." The story of the "miracle of oil" was probably added by the rabbis to give a Jewish "spin" to the lighting, by moving the custom to the 8 days of Hanukka and giving it a new reason – the "miracle of oil."

But the beginning of the custom should be properly attributed to the Hasmonean's victory celebration and the rededication of the Temple. The first celebratory year may have included 8 days of candle lighting, and it is highly probable that the custom continued, at least in in Priestly families, after that. As the populace became more Hellenized, the practice was merged with Saturnalia and broadened throughout the Jewish community.

If the original Hanukka did have 8 days of candle lighting (again, not based on the "miracle of oil" myth), and if the custom continued after that, gradually merging with Saturnalia, the addition of the oil myth would have helped to remove pagan influence while at the same time supplanting the core of the Hanukka miracle, the military victory, with a myth that emphasizes God's role and downplays man's – a winning proposition for the rabbis.

This may be further demonstrated by the rabbinic ban on studying Maccabees 1 & 2, Jewish books that document the Hasmonean victory, the rededication of the Temple, and the continuing war against the Greeks. The ban was probably first instituted during the late Herodian or early Roman period and reissued after the failure of the Bar Kokhba revolt.  It would not have had much effect at its first issuance, because the rabbis were few in number and had little influence.

I suspect the ban therefore did not take hold and was largely forgotten by the time of the first revolt against Rome and the Destruction of the Temple. This may be seen by reviewing Josephus's account of the Hasmonean victory, which seems to be based in part on 1 & 2 Maccabees. Josephus, who wrote after the Destruction and before Bar Kokhba, was a student of the rabbis and considered himself to be a Pharisee. Again, he knows nothing about the oil myth. But he does know the details of the military victory and the celebration that followed. He also knows the holiday's common name – Lights – apparently a reflection of the common custom to light candles.

I believe this indicates the ban on 1 & 2 Maccabees was not reinstituted until after the Bar Kokhba revolt failed, when the rabbis needed to quiet anything that might promote or endorse revolution against Rome. It would have been then, not long after the death of Josephus, that the oil myth was first widely taught.

It's purpose would then have been several-fold: To lessen the role of the now disgraced and Hellenized Maccabees, who in their end had also became close to the hated Saducees; to emphasize God's role in the victory; to remove pagan elements (Saturnalia) that had crept into the holiday's observance; to shift focus away from a victorious war in which the rabbis did not prominently participate; to shift focus from a failed, disastrous war in which the rabbis did prominently participate; and to dampen down any further attempt to revolt against Rome. This may also be seen by the Talmud's lingering memories of a reason underlying Hanukka candle lighting other than the "miracle of oil," and the complete lack of any mention of that same "miracle" in the Mishna or other early rabbinic texts.

In short, while the creation of the oil myth may possibly be dated to the early Roman period, the widespread propagation of that myth most likely began at or just before the beginning of the redaction of the Mishna. Two hundred years later, at the time of the beginning of the redaction of the Talmud, the myth had become an accepted "truth" (even though the rabbis could find no written source for that "truth") – in large part because the rabbis themselves had successfully banned 1 & 2 Maccabees and Josephus 200-plus-years earlier.

And so the "Miracle of Oil" became the focus of Hanukka, as we see to this day.

Head Of Haredi Circumcision Board: Herpes Risk "Has No Basis"

The Religion News Service reports on the metzitza b'peh controversy. Oral-to-genital-contact during circumcision has been determined to be a vehicle for disease transmission, including the common herpes virus, which, when found in infants is extremely dangerous and can lead to severe brain damage and even death. However, haredim refuse to believe the evidence and view the whole controversy as an attack on their religious "freedom." A case is point is the founder and chairman of the new haredi circumcision board, Rabbi Romi Cohn:

Some rabbis, however, do not believe that the circumcision ritual puts infants at risk and said that the health department shouldn't interfere.

"I think it has no basis," said Rabbi Romi Cohn, a Staten Island- and Brooklyn-based rabbi who said he has not seen a single infection among the 15,000 circumcisions he has performed in the region.

Could it be that Rabbi Cohn is not at this time a herpes carrier? Of course. But that does not mean he will not be one tomorrow. Why? Because the virus is very easily transmitted, even through tiny breaks in the skin. But ignoring epidemiological evidence is not enough for Rabbi Cohn – he has to misrepresent Jewish law and tradition, as well:

According to tradition, he said, whoever does the circumcision must use sterilized equipment, undergo routine blood tests and be healthy and clean. The rabbi said metzitzah b'peh is an integral part of circumcision, a ritual that is thousands of years old.

Blood tests? Sterile? Tradition? Please.

Perhaps Rabbi Cohen was referring to the "standards" of the new haredi circumcision board, which claims to mandate twice-yearly blood tests. The problem is, twice-yearly blod tests is not nearly enough to have real impact on transmission and, because of the nature of disease transmission, the only real way to stop it is to stop MBP.

And, it seems, the only real way to do that is to make it illegal. As this sorry episode makes clear, the experiment of haredi "self-governance" has failed.

Evolutionary Trivia

The Economist reports (this is not online unless one is a premium subscriber) that the oldest beads found to date are approximately 75,000 years old. Is that the date of the first clothes, as well?

Mark Stoneking and colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology used the  molecular-clock technique to human lice. They discovered head lice and body lice first diverged into separate species 75,000 years ago. They believe with much justification that this proves humans first wore clothing 75,000 years ago.

The Economist also notes that 74,000 years ago a cataclysim stuck the earth:

SEVEN hundred and forty centuries ago, give or take a few, the skies darkened and the Earth caught a cold. Toba, a volcano in Sumatra, had exploded with the sort of eruptive force that convulses the planet only once every few million years. The skies stayed dark for six years, so much dust did the eruption throw into the atmosphere. It was a dismal time to be alive and, if Stanley Ambrose of the University of Illinois is right, the chances were you would be dead soon. In particular, the population of one species, known to modern science as Homo sapiens, plummeted to perhaps 2,000 individuals.

The proverbial Martian, looking at that darkened Earth, would probably have given long odds against these peculiar apes making much impact on the future. True, they had mastered the art of tool-making, but so had several of their contemporaries. True, too, their curious grunts allowed them to collaborate in surprisingly sophisticated ways. But those advantages came at a huge price, for their brains were voracious consumers of energy—a mere 2% of the body's tissue absorbing 20% of its food intake. An interesting evolutionary experiment, then, but surely a blind alley.

This survey will attempt to explain why that mythical Martian would have been wrong. It will ask how these apes not only survived but prospered, until the time came when one of them could weave together strands of evidence from fields as disparate as geology and genetics, and conclude that his ancestors had gone through a genetic bottleneck caused by a geological catastrophe.

The Economist later notes (again, not online) that this eruption stranded widely separated groups of Homo Sapiens and may have caused them to develop different genetic characteristics that we know today as "races."

If we assume the Creation story and subsequent events in Genesis are in fact older stories added to the Torah either by Moses* or a later editor (like Ezra), and these stories reflect mankind's earliest memories of its existence, what we find is a an "expulsion" from a naive state of existence to one that required clothing, closely followed in time by a flood myth and a Tower of Babel myth. The eruption of Toba could easily account for the latter two stories. Interestingly, dating of the first clothing and the eruption is separated by only a thousand or so years, about the same number of years that separate the Tower of Babel story from the expulsion.

Does this prove anything? No, it certainly does not.

But my bet is this won't stop certain kiruv/outreach organizations from using this information to "prove" the Torah is correct and therefore, divine. (Of course, they'll spin it in a way that preserves the Torah's timeline of a 6000 year old world, either alå Gerald Schroeder, or by rejecting the accuracy of all scientific dating techniques.)

Of course the 'gedolim' may put a kibosh on some of this. Science hasn't treated them very well, of late.

*Before you start to yell "Heretic!" realize that there are Rishonim and earlier sources who said exactly this.

The Little Menorah That Didn't, #3

In a previous post we saw the "miracle of oil" did not happen. Another piece of information that sheds light on a possible reason for invention of the "miracle" has been brough to my attention by DovBear, who, after listing the reasons mentioned earlier, notes:

… The Mishnah has some brief references to the rules for Chanuka , indicating that by the end of the second century C.E. there was already a custom of kindling lights at the darkest period of the year. This was a custom that may have been imported from the northern latitudes during Roman rule -- perhaps in imitation of the Roman Saturnalia observances. Sometime between then and the completion of Gemara, the celebration of lights assumed greater significance and, just as today we elevate the observance of Chanuka in order to offset the influence of Christmas, the rabbis of the Talmud may have built up the idea of a miracle connected with lights, to show Jews that we had our own basis for a solstice observance.

This contention of DovBear's is strengthened (as noted by Doobeedoo, a commenter there) by the following Gemara:

Since Adam HaRishon saw [after he sinned] that the day was becoming shorter, he said, "Woe is to me! Perhaps because I sinned the world is becoming dark on me and returning to emptiness, and this is the death that was decreed upon me from Heaven." He immediately sat and fasted eight days. When he saw the winter solstice, and saw that the day was lengthening, he said, "It is the nature of the world." He went and celebrated eight days. The following year he made both these [the eight days of fast] and these [the eight days of celebration] as holidays. He established them for the sake of Heaven, whereas they [the heathens] established them for idolatry. (Avoda Zara 8a)

In other words, to justify a pagan practice that had become widespread in the Jewish world, the rabbis invented a miracle story to "kasher" the practice. The careful student of Christmas should find much familiar in this.

As an addendum to my previous post on this issue, let me add three more early rabbinic references to Hanukka that do not mention a "miracle of oil" (also via DovBear):

"[At Hanukah] we commemorate the dedication of the Temple by the Hasmoneans who fought and defeated the Hellenists, and we kindle lights -- just as when [we] finished the Tabernacle in the Wilderness . . . ." (Pesikta Rabbati, ch. 6)

"Why do we kindle lights on Hanukah? Because when the sons of the Hasmoneans, the High Priest, defeated the Hellenists, they entered the Temple and found there eight iron spears. They stuck candles on them and lit them." (Pesikta Rabbati ch. 2)

"Why did the rabbis make Hanukah eight days? Because . . . the Hasmoneans entered the Temple and erected the altar and whitewashed it and repaired all of the ritual utensils. They were kept busy for eight days. And why do we light candles? Because . . . when the Hasmoneans entered the Temple there were eight iron spears in their hands. They covered them with wood and lit candles on them. They did this each of the 8 days." (Megilat Ta'anit ch. 9)

So what does this do to our "unaltered" tradition? DovBear will disagree, but it seems perfectly clear that rabbinic tradition is only as good as it is honest. The minute it becomes clear that somewhere down the line rabbis, to put it kindly, messed with the truth, the whole basis for believing anything they said goes out the window. (And, if the behavior of today's 'gedolim' is any indication, the "miracle of oil" is not the only thing in our tradition that is false.)

That is why lying is such a bad thing. It destroys trust, and, without trust, there is no tradition.

Putin Cuts Gas To Ukraine In Bid To Freeze Democracy In Central Europe

Russia's neo-Stalinist president and Chabad "chief rabbi" of Russia Berel Lazar's good friend Vladimir Putin has cut all gas to Ukraine, potentially freezing to death many elderly people there and in the Baltic states. Ukraine's crime? Democracy.

First, Kevin Kerr of MarketWatch reports from Estonia on the potential for this to happen, 11 days before it actually took place:

…Like most of the Baltic countries, Estonia has relied on Russia to provide a vast amount of its energy supply throughout the years. But that relationship has soured somewhat with Estonia. A far worse situation is brewing in some of the former Soviet Union States.

For example, the Ukraine has been a thorn in the side of Russia and the Putin administration. Now Russia is pursuing a geopolitical goal to block Ukraine from joining NATO and the E.U. something that Ukraine certainly wants.

Turning off the spigot and turning up the heat

The Kremlin is well aware that energy is a tried and tested political weapon and they are ready and willing to use it. When I turned on the evening news last night from Russia, watching from my home in Estonia, the first three stories pertained to the Putin administration, energy and the cold, cold winter.

The Kremlin is seeking control over pricing of the vast pipelines that crisscross the Ukraine. These vital pipelines are at present the primary gateway for the wealthy European market. The Kremlin has Rubles on the brain and sees Ukraine as a major impediment to the riches that lie beyond.

Other former Soviet Union States like Belarus have capitulated to Russia and continue to given Russia a cut-rate, bargain basement deal. As a reward Belarus will continue to pay only $49 a thousand cubic meters for Russian Gas in 2006.

On the contrary, the defiant Ukraine is getting socked with an increase from $50 per thousand cubic feet to a whopping $160-$230 price tag in 2006. Other countries feeling the energy pinch include: Moldova ($150-$160), Estonia ($120-$125), Lithuania ($120-125) and Latvia ($120-$125).

It could be a very long and cold winter for many of these countries citizens that live on fixed incomes. Capitalism has provided many comforts not seen during communism and war, but has also brought with it the growing pains of a free market economy.

In an attempt to further legitimize its position, the Putin government and the state owned Rosneft, (formerly Yukos), is seeking out Western leaders to put a better face on the situation and encourage Western investment in the major Russian energy company.

'Bushneft or bust'

When the Kremlin seized Yukos and jailed its leader Mikhail Khordokovsky in Siberia for "tax evasion," the wheels of change were set in motion, and they continue to roll on.

Another major shift just occurred as ousted German leader Gerhard Schröder, plagued by unemployment in his country, decided not to become a statistic himself and accepted a job in a top post with Gazprom the giant energy company in Russia.

Ironically Gazprom is behnd an ambitious pipeline project between Russia and Germany that Schröder championed while in office. Actually, it´s not that ironic, just disturbing.

In a similar move, the Kremlin is purportedly trying to entice former U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans to come on board as the new chairman of Rosneft. Clearly all of this is an attempt to calm the fears of investors from the West ahead of the Rosneft initial public offering set for 2006.

"This is the latest Kremlin strategy to co-opt and hush the Western nations by making them complicit in its crimes... When everyone is guilty, then no one is guilty goes the logic... Oil, gas, politics, intimidation, and repression are all mixed together," observed chess master and political dissident Garry Kasparov In a recent Wall Street Journal article.…

Now, today's London Telegraph breaks the news – Russia is freezing out Ukarine:

Russia took Europe to the brink of a winter energy crisis yesterday when it carried out a Cold War-style threat and halted gas deliveries to Ukraine, the main conduit for exports to the West.

With a quarter of its gas supplied by Russia, Europe is facing serious disruption and price rises for as long as the dispute rumbles on.

Moscow turned off the tap at 10am after Ukraine refused to sign a new contract with the Russian state monopoly Gazprom quadrupling prices.

Critics of the Kremlin say the rise was punishment for the Orange Revolution in 2004 which brought in a westward-leaning government that promised to remove Ukraine from the Kremlin's sphere of influence.

The American State Department said that "such an abrupt stop creates insecurity in the energy sector in the region and raises serious questions about the use of energy to exert political pressure".

The European Union has called an emergency meeting of energy ministers on Wednesday.

Britain is less vulnerable than mainland Europe because it does not receive direct supplies from the former Soviet bloc.

But as other countries seek to shore up their reserves, less gas is likely to be pumped through the pipeline that links the Continent with Britain. That could mean higher prices and, if there is no quick resolution, possible breaks in supplies.

The European Commission says that most countries have between a week and two months' emergency reserves.

Ukraine has upset Moscow by pushing to join the EU and Nato. However, Russia insists that the price rise merely brings Ukraine in line with the price that most of Europe pays: about $240 per 1,000 cubic metres.

President Vladimir Putin adopted almost warlike terms when he spoke on television as the hours ticked by before the ultimatum expired.

"If no clear response [from Kiev] follows, we will conclude that our proposal has been rejected," he said.

If Ukraine's reserves run out, it could be tempted to siphon off gas intended for other countries. It claims the right to do so in lieu of transit fees.

The cut-off coincided with Russia assuming the rotating presidency of the G8 leading industrialised nations.

In Britain, millions of families started paying higher fuel prices yesterday.

Scottish and Southern Energy raised prices by 13.6 per cent, adding approximately £50 to the average annual bill, while electricity charges will go up by 12 per cent, or about £30 a year.

Npower puts its rises into effect today, adding 14.5 per cent for gas and 13.6 per cent for electricity.

This thug is Berel Lazar's close friend. Lazar shills for him. Lazar even intercedes for him in Washington.

Wake up Jews – Chabad is your enemy.

UPDATE: Russia restores gas to central and western Europe – but not the Ukraine. The Financial Times reports after the jump.

Rival Chabad Factions Fight Over Woodstock

Rival Chabad factions are fighting for control of the wealthy New York State town of Woodstock. Best quotes from a must-read article from the Woodstock Times:

"I have been very quiet about this," Yitzchok Hecht told this reporter this week. "I am not here to get into this whole thing but you are cornering me into a position. Am I not supposed to respond?"

But Hecht has made editors at Woodstock Times aware of the situation several times over the past year and as recently as a week ago.

And:

"Yitzchok [Hecht] is so upset he didn't get Woodstock," said Borenstein this week. "It is a wealthy place and he wanted to get real estate there... The Hechts are looking for power. They think they own Ulster County. They think they own Sullivan County. And, now, they think they own Dutchess County... They told me they would bury me alive. I said, if that's the will of God, I will accept it with love."

From the way Rabbi Borenstein speaks in the article, it would seem he is a messianist. The Hechts, of course, are not. Dishonest? Thuggish? You be the judge.

Chabad's 13 Principles Of Faith

CHABAD'S THIRTEEN PRINCIPLES OF FAITH:

1. I believe with perfect faith that G-d is the Creator and the Rebbe, shlit'a the Ruler of all things. Together as One, in Unity, they alone have made, do make, and will make all things. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

2. I believe with perfect faith that the Rebbe, shlit"a and G-d are One. There is no unity that is in any way like this. They alone are our G-d.  He was, He is, and He will be. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

3. I believe with perfect faith that G-d does not have a body except for the Rebbe, Shlit"a. Physical concepts do not apply to Him. There is nothing whatsoever that resembles Him at all, except the Rebbe, shlit"a (and maybe the previous Rebbe). Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

4. I believe with perfect faith that the Rebbe is the seventh and last. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

5. I believe with perfect faith that it is only proper to pray to G-d. One may not pray to anyone or anything else (except the Rebbe, shlit'a). Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

6. I believe with prefect faith that all the words of the Rebbes and prophets are true. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

7. I believe with perfect faith that the prophecy of Moses is absolutely true. He was the chief of all prophets, both before and after him, except for the Rebbe, shlit"a, whose prophecy is higher and who is, Himself, higher than Moses. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

8. I believe with perfect faith that the entire Torah that we now have is that which was given to Moses. This includes the Tanya and other works of Chabad chassidus, which were given to Moses but kept hidden because of our sins until our Rebbes revealed them. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

9. I believe with perfect faith that this Torah will not be changed, and that there will never be another given by G-d, until the Messianic Era, where G-d and the Rebbe, shlit"a will reveal a new Torah to us. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

10. I believe with perfect faith that the Rebbe, shlit"a knows all of man's deeds and thoughts. It is thus written (Psalm 33:15), "He has molded every heart together, He understands what each one does." Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

11. I believe with perfect faith that the Rebbe, shlit"a rewards those who do His mivtzoyim, and punishes those who do not. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

12. I believe with perfect faith in the revelation of the Rebbe, shlit"a, King Messiah. How ever long this takes, I will publicize His coming every day with large signs, billboards and flags. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

13. I believe with perfect faith that the dead will be brought back to life when the Rebbe, shlit"a (who is still Himself alive although we do not see Him because of our sins) wills it to happen. Yechi Adonaynu Moraynu v'Rabaynu Melech HaMoshiach L'Olam Vo'ed!

Dr. Meir Soleveitchik Refuted

Harvard's Shaye J.D.Cohen and Meir Soleveitchik have an exchange of letters in the Winter issue of Azure. Dr. Cohen claims with much justification that Dr. Soleveitchik misrepresents his (Cohen's) views on the origin of matralineal descent. For his part, Dr. Solevietchik answers with bluster, contending that matralineal descent is biblical. In proof of this, Dr. Soleveitchik cites an incident from the Book of Ezra.

In the incident a petitioner asks Ezra to expel all the "foreign women and their children," but does not ask for the same to be done to the "foreign" men and theirs. This, according to Dr. Soleveitchik, "proves" matralineal descent is biblical, meaning it is a law always in practice from the time of the Revelation of the Torah on Mount Sinai, and is based on Torah precepts, even though it is found nowhere in the Torah itself.

But this is a problematic citation for several reasons, not the least of which is the dating of Ezra, which by biblical chronology is of the last of the cannonical books. It describes events that took place after the return to Judea from the Babylonian exile. And it contains  some unique history.

We learn from Ezra that many laws and practices thought to be biblical were unknown to the returnees, and Ezra had to "reinstitute" them. This is made even more problematic because Nehemia also appears to have been unaware of them, as well.

We also learn that Ezra had to "reinstitute" entire sections of the Torah which had become "lost" to the returnees. According to some Rishonim, Ezra also performed a lterary service, adding in every line that says, "And God spoke to Moses …," "God spoke to Moses …," "And Moses spoke …," etc. Others contend Ezra removed entire psalms from the "text" of the Torah and moved them to the Book of Psalms, no doubt for neatness of appearance. (For more on this, please see Marc Shapiro's book on the Rambam's thirteen principles of faith.)

This makes relying on anything in Ezra for the purpose of determining its "biblical" status problematic.

Perhaps realizing this, Dr. Soleveitchik notes that the petitioner refers to the Torah basis for his requested action, asking for the expulsion “in accordance with the Torah.” "The clear implication," says Dr. Soleveitchik, is that the petitioner "was suggesting not a supererogatory act, but rather a mandatory one whose biblical basis was already known to Ezra."

But as is well known, torah means teaching or law, and does not need to refer to the Five Books of Moses that bear its name. In fact, most usages of the word are just that – a reference to a teaching or a law taught by a specific sage or expounded by a particular public figure. The petitioner could just as well be referring to a teaching of Ezra, and that is perhaps the case here.

We find no mention of matralineal descent before Ezra, and we find it here only if we accept the notion that expelling foreign wives is linked to that and not to, for example, idol worship, as was the problem with King Solomon's foreign wives, Abraham's concubines, and their progeny. And, because both of these incidents are mentioned, one in the Torah itself and one in Neviim (Prophets), it is far more likely Ezra's petitioner was referring to them.

In attempting to prove his thesis that the "Jewish mother" is, despite her lack of protection in many legal areas and her inability to inherit her husband, a coequal or higher with Jewish fathers, Dr. Soleveitchik marshals support from the Talmud, written hundreds of years after the close of the biblical cannon:

"Yevamot states that a child born to a woman who converted mid-pregnancy is considered Jewish--that is, the child of a Jewish mother--despite the fact that the baby was conceived when his mother was a Gentile. This, as I noted, indicates 'the doctrine of matrilineal descent does not imply that the mother’s genetic contribution to the child at the moment of conception is more important than that of the father; it insists, rather, that the bond forged by childbearing and birth is stronger than any other familial attachment.'”

Really?

A far more plausible explanation is the status of the baby is determined by the status of the mother at the time of birth because we had (in those days) no surefire way to determine pregnancy in its earliest stages, and the idea of having a potential convert wait three or more months before converting is found nowhere in the biblical cannon. Further, a fetus is not considered to be a life in the fullest sense until birth. We see this from the biblical incident (Exodus 21:22) of two men fighting and accidentally injuring a pregnant woman who loses the baby. The man who caused the injury is not sent into exile like other accidental murderers; he pays a monetary fine, instead. One could easily argue this is the reason for the halakha mentioned in the Talmud.

So we see Dr. Soleveitchik discards scholarly diligence for the comforting world of rabbinic homily, and that is fine – so long as the distinction between the two is clear in both the minds of the author and his readers. With Dr. Soleveitchik, this is clearly not the case.

Haredim To Hold Mass Protest Against NYC?

Steven I. Weiss is reporting rumors of a large, haredi anti-Bloomberg protest at tomorrow's inaguration. The issue? Metzitza b'peh, the medieval oral-to-genital-contact during (some) circumcisions haredim refuse to stop. Weiss also reports rumors circulating in Flatbush and other less-hasidic areas of Orthodox New York of new government controls over any ritual circumcision, MBP or not.

What is this all about? It seems to me NYC's Health Department is about to release more damning information about the dangerous spread of herpes and other diseases through MBP, information – and perhaps specific cases – already shared with haredi leadership, but not shared by that leadership with their communites. If NYC does this, it will expose haredi leadership to serois attacks from within their own communities. That is why these leaders need to quickly recast this as an attack on circumcision itself, and not simply an attack against a dangerous, non-biblical, section of the procedure done only by (some) haredim.

While the actual meat of the rumors are certainly false*, the underlying message is clear – turn genuine concern by the city for the safety of Jewish children into an antisemitic witch hunt aimed at haredim.

More to come, as this developes.

*With the exception of the demonstration, which may take place.