Shalom to all the new readers!

Join the party!

The music of Paolo Conte

The hoarse healer, He sings in stride. Ther is one the best sax solos of all time in this song.

Alan Dershowitz at the Kinus HaShluchim

Alan with the CEO of Shmais.

So, let�s say I land from the moon in Hilton. I see 3,000 Rabbis who consider their task is to return Jews to the observant life listening with open mouths to a Jew who is not longer openly observant. Yes, read up in his Chutzpa book about his Shomer Shabbos days in Yale. What is going on there?

But of course Lubavitch today is the engine running on the fundraising fuel, moved by the Jewish nostalgia. There is no better person to lubricate this engine than a high profile celebrity like the Professor.

He is calling himself a Misnaged and he forgets his Williamsburg grandfather who was a chosid of the Malach (see comments here to the Reb Shneor Zalman Hakohen Blesovsky, OHS post). But on to the prescribed by the professor kiruv approach that he learned from the Rabeinu Hirschy Zarchi: �don't ask Harvard students to do anything inconsistent with their own secular philosophy, don't conduct any Chabad programs for example that require men and women to sit separately, therefore don't have Shabbat services necessarily, don't have Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services�.

Hirschy is a Chabad celebrity chef of Harvard. He runs a kosher soup kitchen for students. The Harvard students are not there to get lectured; they have plenty of that in the school. There are there to chill with the cholnt. I guess davening together on Yom Kippur is not that important in the scheme of things. Professor Dershowitz says it is the way to go.

Meanwhile Schneur Zalman of NY will have to put his dream on hold. The army is coming.

Rabbi Berl Lazar at the Kinus HaShluchim

Photo: V. Kochetkov, Moscow News.

I listened to Rabbi Berl Lazar speech two times. It is a motivational speech. I don�t see how I can hold it against him that the speech was mostly positive, this is what a motivational speech supposed to be. The speech was obviously written by a professional ghost writer, it had a nice flow and balance. It was properly structured and most importantly it was a very sincere speech.

Berl Lazar and Kaminetzky and others went to Russia not expecting the material spoils. The spoils that came their way are only as he said �kelim detikun�. Please spare us listening about Putin�s gefilte fish though. Yet, I don�t even feel like clabbering Lazar for being a court Jew or Oligarch�s pass�. He is trying to do the best under the circumstances. Rabbi Lazar�s heart is in the right place when he offers recognition to the unsung Shaliyah �kol dmimo dako�.

But it is very telling that there was one phrase that Lazar used three or four times - "umil'u es-hooretz vchivshuho" - �fill and concur the land�. This is what Gandalin describes as �fascism-communism-nationalsozialismus� philosophy. I bet you he really sees Shluchim as a concurring army. We did speak about the origins of this thinking in the il Duce of Marina Roscha. This approach already reared it�s head in my past interview:

�Lazar�s general strategy is a complete monopoly and a methodical centralized control. This is his "glavny politichesky vector" (main political vector).�

Rabbi Berl Lazar also used the phrase �Toirah uMizvos Galore�, so on to the reality check:

1. The best of Russian Jewry is no longer in the CCCP.
2. Assimilation continues unabated and accelerates every year. There is no evidence that the army of Shluchim in Russia or elsewhere in the world played a statistically significant role in preventing this.
3. (CENSORED).
4. While Lazar army is populating deserted villages and takes possession of the vacant properties, the massive, top quality Jewish Russian community in America is forsaken with Jewish education out of reach for most.
5. Lazar�s revolution is being fueled by the power of Oligarchs who divided the spoils of the looted country. Spoils that were created by the work of generations of the enslaved people amongst whom Jews played the traditionally prominent role. The �Kelim deTikun �are but the reparations on behalf of the millions of the tortured slaves. And where that leaves �Oros deTochu�?
Pass the gefilte fish please, President Putin...

Kinus ha Shluchim

to be continued...

British and Continental Enlightenment(s)

REMBRANDT, Philosopher in Meditation 1632, Mus�e du Louvre.

Gandalin commenting to mentalblog.com: Novus Ordo Seclorum:

The differences between the Britannick Enlightenment (Scottish in particular) on the one hand and the French Enlightenment on the other hand, are striking and critical to understanding how the continental Enlightenment gave rise to statism in its various avatars of fascism-nationalsozialismus-communism whereas the British Enlightenment, as brought to fruition in America, gave rise to a society which freed its slaves, enfranchised its laborers and women, and twice sent armies to Europe not as conquerors but as liberators.

The existence of the Masonic Lodge as a laboratory in which Godfearing men of differing faith communities could develop the personal habits that permit democracy was undoubtedly important. Democracy is not NO-government, it is SELF-government. The Masonic Lodge provided a dojo in which self-government could be learned, even in a society that was still monarchical and hierarchical.

berl, crown heights: Very illuminating. Can you please elaborate on the 'the differences between the Britannic and French Enlightenment'? Any good book on the subject?

Gandalin: The Britannick Enlightenment as I see it has roots that go back before the actual period of the Enlightenment, at least to Elizabethan Times. The philosophy of Francis Bacon, whose "New Atlantis" may be the remnant of a Masonic or Rosicrucian project to establish a model polity in the Americas, is certainly one precursor.

I find in the Britannic Enlightenment a concern for the individual, an epistemological skepticism, and an anti-utopian reformism, if you will, that seeks to ameliorate the life of mankind while recognizing the complex and problematic in human nature.

In the French "lumieres" I find an utopian perfectionism, clothed in a Rousseauian idyll which conceals the murderous rage that the philosopher-kings will later turn on their subjects, when the people are unable to live up to the ideals that were upheld for them. The absolutism of Saint-Just, the formal and open establishment of The Terror as an instrument of public policy (I believe this is the first appearance of terrorism in the world-historical-political lexicon.)

In order to perceive the difference between them, one need only compare the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution (remarkable for their sobriety and realism) with the perorations of a Babeuf, a Robespierre, or a Marat.

TA: Gandalin, can you suggest a "for dummies" reading list on this?

Gandalin: Here is a suggested reading list for those who may have an interest in the British and Continental Enlightenment(s).

First of all, since you entered this subject by way of Napoleon Bonaparte�s supposed Masonic connections; I am going to suggest an historical work which discusses the possible influence of Freemasonry on continental politics in the XVIIIth century. Most of what is published on this subject is, I fear, nonsense. The Masons who have written on the topic tend, I think, to over-estimate the role played by the Masonic Lodge in the republican Revolutions of the Enlightenment, and the books written by anti-Masons are largely nothing more than conspiratorial fantasies. (As I�m sure you know, the text of the �Protocols of the Elders of Zion� was originally written to �expose� a supposed Masonic plot to conquer the world, before it was re-edited to turn the plot into a Jewish one, and it is equally fictional in that context.)

A scholarly work using sound principles and based on the examination of primary sources is Professor Margaret Jacob�s �Living the Enlightenment,� Oxford University Press, 1991. She shows that Masonry provided a vehicle to transmit throughout the continent, originally British ideas. Politically, these ideas included the notion that men were capable of choosing their own leaders in elections that proceeded by a secret ballot; that a voluntary association could be governed by an explicit constitution, bylaws, and decisions made by elected representatives; that men of different professional backgrounds and social origins could meet and converse as equals (albeit, at first, in a carefully delimited locale, namely the Lodge); and that religious believers from very different faith communities could dedicate themselves to the service of Deity together, and that underlying the different particularistic manifestations of their faith was a shared understanding that Natural Law derives from a benign and omnipotent Creator. Thus was �civil society� created in the midst of the decaying �ancient regime.�

Philosophically, the major figures in the British Enlightenment were, I think, Locke and Hume. The English physician John Locke was a XVIIth century figure whose interests, unlike those of his friend Sydenham, extended well beyond the boundaries of medical science. He wrote the �Essay,� as well as �Treatises� on government and other subjects. The Scotsman David Hume lived during the XVIIIth century, and is best remembered today, I think, for his �Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.� But the most important thinker in terms of political economy or political philosophy was probably Adam Smith, a professor at Glasgow, who�s �Wealth of Nations� (1776) remains relevant and enlightening today. Another XVIth century philosopher worth reading is Thomas Hobbes, whose skepticism about the state of nature contrasts with Rousseau�s view of the noble savage.

I claim that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are practical documents that embody the philosophy of the British Enlightenment, and a close reading of both would provide an excellent background in key concepts of the British Enlightenment. If you want to delve more deeply into the political ramifications of the enlightenment ideals, then I suggest the Federalist Papers or the Adams-Jefferson correspondence.

As for the continental enlightenment, we should distinguish between the German Aufklaerung, which was largely academic, and the French �lumieres� whose philosophy devolved into the Revolution, the Terror, the Empire, and the various statist doctrines that bedeviled Europe in the XXth century. (Margaret Thatcher has saliently pointed out that neither communism nor nationalsozialismus nor fascism originated in Britain, but that all are manifestations of a continental European tradition or sickness, depending on your point of view. For intellectual histories of socialism, I like Joshua Muravchik�s �Heaven on Earth,� which is especially good on Babeuf and the early German thinkers Lasalle and Bernstein. I also like Shafarevich�s book on Socialism, which in its English translation is now out of print, although you have to take it with a grain of salt. I am aware that Shafarevich has allied himself with anti-Semitic nationalist parties in Russia, and he tends to take the view, mistaken I think, that modern socialism is the direct outgrowth of a long-standing, anti-Christian, heretical conspiracy which he sketches in from Freemasonry backwards through to the radical Anabaptists, the Free Spirit movement of late medieval Northern Europe, and the Cathars. I don�t buy that. However, it is remarkable to see what he could do with the materials that were available to him in the Soviet Union, and his depiction of the early Chin Empire and of the Inca Empire as socialist dystopias is compelling. He does show I think that the socialist idea does not derive from any supposed contradiction between the industrial proletariat and bourgeoisie, but is rather a totalitarian ideal found already in a quite developed form in Plato�s �Republic� and St Thomas More�s �Utopia.�)

Immanuel Kant is the quintessential German Enlightenment writer, but he is quite difficult. Perhaps his pamphlet �Was ist Aufklaerung� would be of interest.

The French Enlightenment authors include Denis Diderot, the paragon of materialism, Voltaire, the Baron de Montesquieu, and of course Rousseau. Rousseau�s essays on the Social Contact, on the Origin of Inequality, and on the Arts and Sciences are relatively straightforward. Diderot expended his life on the Encyclopedie, but his fictional works are of great interest, including the story of Jacques le Fataliste � et son maitre � and the remarkable conversation with �Rameau�s Nephew.� Many of his essays were circulated only in manuscript, but were quite influential when you consider that the subscribers included Catherine the Great and Frederick the Great. Voltaire�s works are better known, and in Voltaire we find the extreme anti-clericalism of the French Enlightenment taking form. Montesquieu�s �De l�esprit des lois� is important, and his �Lettres Persane,� is also quite good. He used a fictional Persian setting to evade royal censorship.

Delving into all that would be quite a start!

Albion's Seed and St. Germain des Pres philosophers

Gandalin commenting to the mentalblog.com: What if, Lubavitch in France?

This post is truly amazing. Is it possible you actually believe that Chabad chassidus in particular and Yiddishkeit in general are incapable of generating their own authentic spiritual/philosophical development, but merely reflect whatever milieu surrounds them? Is it possible that you still believe the communist malarkey about the class, g-dless, materialistic American culture that you seem to have been fed in the CCCP? Is it possible that you actually believe there is really something of value, ethically and epistemologically, in the Gauloise-smoke-rings of the St Germain des Pres philosophers who are even now looking for the appropriate jihadist uebermenschen to worship, having previously exhausted themselves collaborating with the Nazis, and adoring the communists?

TA: I have no illusions about Foucault�s and his ilk. I am speaking about the values and the values are such that a most successful professor in USA will never be as respected as successful car salesmen (unless the professor managed to turn his title into a business).

Gandalin: I think you have hit on one reason for the infatuation of the Western intelligentsia with fascism-communism-nationalsozialismus -- you are perhaps correct "that a most successful professor in USA will never be as respected as successful car salesmen" -- whereas under the statist tyrannies of the left, the intelligentsia and literati were given academies, medals, jobs, and apartments! Seemingly a much greater role, a more prominent role in social life.

TA: Isn�t the Jewish traditional social structure is in fact a "statist tyranny" based on the French model?

Gandalin: My impression of the traditional Jewish constitution of the Davidic and Hashmonean monarchies, is that there is supposed to have existed, first of all, a parallel system of royal and religious courts, somewhat diluting, I think, the absolute power of the state, and that the monarch was constrained at least to some degree by the public's knowledge of the laws which he (or she, in a case or two) was required also to follow.

I don't doubt, however, that life was less free in those distant times, and that the economy of the country, in particular, was hindered by an absence of understanding of the free market. I do note, however, that reforms such as the prozbul demonstrate, in my opinion, that some of the basic principles of economics were beginning to be understood in the Jewish state of 2,000 years ago.

Moreover, I think that the institution of the Sanhedrin did provide for a form on non-utopian reform in a variety of spheres of thought and activity.

TA: I meant to refer to a more recent history when Jews in Europe have absorbed the legacy of the French, German, Russian absolutist enlightenments. (Even here in America Jews flirted with communism and remain dominantly left leaning towards the French model.) Chasidic Jews on the other hand remain an absolutist society where utopian ideas coexist with violence and rage (Satmar) or institutionalized, centralized, hierarchical, Kafkaesque, cliquish, human engineering (Lubavitch).

And then there is a tapestry of American traditions. Would Mormon tradition be considered an absolutist? And there are "more French" Philadelphia Quakers, "more English" Bostonians, etc. I admit I know almost nothing about this.

Gandalin: Your perceptions are penetrating, and quite on the mark.

You are absolutely right that most American Jews remain enthralled by the failed socio-economic-political statisms of the European left. (They were inoculated from nationalsozialismus only because of its extreme anti-Semitism.) I appreciate your perceptions of the Chassidische welt, but I am too ignorant to comment further on it, and I look forward to more of your observations here.

As far as the tapestry of American traditions is concerned -- for an extremely insightful analysis of the different American regional traditions, I can not too highly recommend "Albion's Seed" by David Hackett Fisher (1985).

He shows that the British peopling of what became the United States proceeded in four very distinct waves of immigration, and that each wave came from a very distinctive British sub-culture, bringing with it very distinct folk traditions in law, religion, food, behavior, etc.

Thus, the first wave (1620-1645) consisted of Puritans from East Anglia. The next, high church cavaliers from Wessex and Sussex who immigrated to the Virginia tidewater (including Maryland) after Cromwell took power (1650-1700).

The Quakers (joined by German priests who shared much of their worship style) came from the northern Midlands and settled in the Delaware valley.

The last wave consisted of much poorer emigrants from the surroundings of the Irish Sea in the border counties, the Scottish lowlands, and Northern Ireland. These "Scots-Irish" settled in the mountains.

The differences between these different groups, in speech, in philosophy, and religion, were already pronounced before they came to America, and their differences remain.

Further immigrants tend to adopt the style and mores of the English sub-culture into which they move. Thus Fisher, who teaches at Brandeis, notes that Jewish students in his classes tend to reflect the predominant subculture in the region where their ancestors settled.

One example: marriage. For the Puritans in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a marriage was a civil contract and was NOT celebrated in a Church. The betrothal was announced in Church, but the wedding was purely civil affair, conducted at home, and solemnized by civil rather than religious officials. For the cavaliers of tidewater Virginia on the other hand, a marriage was a sacrament, to be celebrated with nuptials in a formal, consecrating Church service.

It is thus no wonder, is it, that Massachusetts should formalize homosexual marriages, and that Virginia should find such a move entirely scandalous.

TA: And where that leaves California?

Sobol's "Kol Nidrei"

A new play by Yehoshua Sobol "Kol Nidrei".
Haaretz: Neither this nor that.
Jerusalem Post: Double life of the 'religious shabbab'.

mentalblog.com links

Haaretz: End of the Ashkenazi era. Haaretz: Chabad joins Shas campaign: "Shas spokesman Roi Lachmanovitch said that the agreement between Shas and Chabad was reached through MK Amnon Cohen, who is close to billionaire and Chabad member Lev Leviev."

Sanders Research argues that Bush�s messianic policy is inspired by the rhetoric of ex Marxist Jews.

George W. Bush as a socialist pioneer on the Israeli banknote :-)

Etymology of the word Google

The official Google version is that "Google is a play on the word GOOGOL, which was coined by Milton Sirotta, nephew of American mathematician Edward Kasner, and was popularized in the book, Mathematics and the Imagination. It refers to the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. Google's use of the term reflects the company's mission to organize the immense, seemingly infinite amount of information available on the web."

So how did 9 (some say 11) year old Milton come up with the name Googol? Edward Kasner in a footnote in Mathematics and the Imagination wrote that "googol" is "not even approximately a Russian author Nikolai Gogol".

There is a WSJ artcile on the subject, it reports that "it's unclear how the words popped into young Milton's head. Caroline Birenbaum, Kasner's great-niece, speculates the coinage may have been inspired by a comic-strip character, Barney Google, who debuted in 1919. She thinks Kasner, who she says liked cartoons, may have tweaked the spelling to avoid any trademark issues - which would mean the name has come full circle."

Caroline Birenbaum is also quoted saying that "Milton and [her father] Edwin worked for their father's business in Brooklyn, grinding apricot pits into an abrasive for industrial purposes�"

I doubt Barney Google was Milton Sirotta�s inspiration. Not insignificant is that the name GOOGOL was coined "close to 1920" while Barney Google cartoon character debuted in 1919 and was not initially a children�s comic strip. But let me ask our Eastern European readers, what does the process of grinding yellow apricot pits (Sirota�s family business) remains you off? Eureka, of course, Gogol Mogol as they pronounced it in Russia or Gugel Mugel as they used to say in Ukraine and Poland. What is Gogol Mogol? To the rescue are the archives of the Mendele: Yiddish literature and language email list. There is a long and fascinating discussion.

Izaly Zemtsovsky of Berkeley, CA writes:
Subject: Guggle-muggle

My family (from Belorussian Jewry, exactly Nevel of Vitebsk region) knows this name as "Gogol-mogol". The main word is "gogol" (like the last name of well-known Russian-Ukrainian writer, by the way) and second one is just a senseless paired rhyme to this word -- like in numerous children's verses and singing games. One has to check this paired word -- just in case -- in the famous Russian dictionary compiled by Vladimir Dal (unfortunately, this valuable book is not on my desk for the moment). The word might be even onomatopoeic. I never heard "guggle-muggle" but this sounds to me onomatopoeic as well. However, let us double check.
Apropos, I myself used to prepare this delicious both remedy and delicacy in my childhood taking two yolks and energetically stirring them up with two table spoons of sugar -- as long as the mass becomes almost white and dense. Enjoy without getting ill!

Now you can imagine how Milton Sirota might have come up with the Googol. And the rest is history as they say. Keep on searching!

What if, Lubavitch in France?

Mussia, open the door! (mentalblog.com: The house of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Paris)



On the subject of mentalblog.com: What if R. Shmaryahu Gourary became the Lubavitcher Rebbe? What if Lubavitch established itself in France as opposed to America? France is a culture that holds abstract philosophical discourse in high esteem. Therefore it is plausible to suggest that the movement would have developed esoteric aspects of Habad teachings instead of morphing into one big American fund raising convention.

Novus Ordo Seclorum

Antoine-Jean GROS, Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-stricken at Jaffa, 1799, Mus�e du Louvre, Paris.

berl, crown heights (commenting to the mentalblog.com: R. Goldshmidt is banned from Moscow post): Regarding "Alter Rebbe's stance vis-�-vis Napoleon. It does not provide a LIMUD of any sort regarding what his attitude might have been toward a benevolent democracy like the United States. Napoleon's intentions regarding the Jews were not simply to grant them freedoms; there were many indications he actively sought to assimilate them (and in such a case one has to prefer a life of misery under an evil regime that will, at least, not attempt to woo the Jews away from Teiroh)... it is most definitely not true that one would see Bonaparte & John Adams in the same light!"

faruq: Sichos in English has the following: "The Alter Rebbe, however, supported Czar Alexander I, explaining that Napoleon's victory would no doubt improve the Jews' economic and social standing, but would detract from their spiritual commitment and practice. A Russian victory, by contrast, would perpetuate the difficult economic conditions under which the Jews lived, but would also nurture the fruitful spiritual climate of yiras shamayim ... which then prevailed."

berl, crown heights: why not continue your quote: "Why was the Alter Rebbe so opposed to Napoleon? At the core of the French Revolution lay a disregard for higher authority, a disregard which can spur undue self-concern. Such an attitude in turn leads to the pursuit of material pleasure and sensual gratification." [24 Teves, 5752] Can the same statement be made about the American Revolution? A resounding NO! American founding fathers were Deists!

"Novus Ordo Seclorum" Latin for "New Order of the Ages"

Tzemach Atlas: These are the questions that troubled me for many years and I never had a chance to think them through in depth:

Both American and French revolutions were Masonic revolts. Considering the fact that Napoleon himself was a Mason, it seams to be inaccurate to view French enlightenment and specifically Napoleon himself as anti�deist or that different from his Masonic brothers, the American founding fathers.

The only facts that we specially know about Napoleon stance visa-a-vi Jews is that he abolished ghettos, (see Napoleon and the Jews) an inquisitional legacy in the catholic countries, and sough to integrate Jews in the society. Napoleon didn't want to convert Jews; he wanted to give Jews equal rights in this he was in agreement with the American founding fathers.

Interesting that all the fascists and communist: Stalin Hitler, Mussolini, etc. persecuted masons. What if Napoleon was successful in establishing Masonic messianic goal of "Novus Ordo Seclorum" in Europe? It is reasonable to believe that the cataclysms of the century after Napoleon�s passing would have been prevented. The statistical response to the question would have the Jews lost as many souls to the assimilation as they did to WWI, WWII, communism, fascism and yes the massive overwhelming assimilation in Russia itself, the answer is not in doubt.

In light of the quote from the Sicho delivered on 24 Teves, 5752 on Alter Rebbe�s Yehrzeit it is significant to mentioned the �Nefesh Hashfelo� or a transcription of Alter Rebbe�s words right before his passing while he was in Haditch, Russia during his flight from the advancing Napoleon�s army. I have been obsessing about the Kotzker aspects of Chasidism and when I think about Alter Rebbe�s words I shudder. Alter Rebbe brings a Medrash about the creation of the world (from memory): �Emes, the Truth argues against the creation of the universe. Sheker, the Falsehoods comes forth and in a dramatic fashion casts the truth to the ground enabling the world to be created�. I find the fact that Alter Rebbe said this before his passing and specifically during his flight from Napoleon not insignificant!

Long Live "Novus Ordo Seclorum"!

Baal Tshuva Contract

Rebel Jew has a draft of the BT Contract: Thoughts on Judaism: BT Permission Slip. Sign on the dotted line with your own blood.

Memories of synagogues in Deutschland

On the subject of blog synchronicity, I spoke to Dr. Hans Guggenheim few days ago. He tells me he wants to do a synagogue project with me. I told Hans a very personal reason why I would not be able to do it. But here I think this is what you had in mind Hans: A project by German students to archive information about German and Austrian synagogues (via Bloghead).
The students write: We are looking for people with memories of synagogues in Germany and who are ready to share them with others.
On the site you find these wonderful three dimensional models reconstructing the lost treasures.


This is a photo of destroyed pure Bauhaus synagogue in Plauen (built in, yes Zuravitzer, 1930!)

Also almost exactly a year ago I posted a link to a photo collection of synagogues in Russia: mentalblog.com: Synagogue jam session.

Express train

Travis Ruse: I live in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I work in midtown Manhattan: This is what I see every day commuting to and from work:

November, 2005 photo album (via hKetG).

Con Artistic personality

So there is this article in the New York Times: Maintaining Connections, but Keeping the Web at Bay about Lakewood, Internet, etc.(via Bloghead) The article is predictably stupid, sorry. But there is an interview with Shtreimel who also commented on this blog to I'm 23, I live in Crown Heights and I write well. Deal with it :) post as Con Artistic. I am getting confused, isn�t Shtreimel the original blogger from A Hassid and a Heretic? In any case in the comments to S.H.s post he writes: "As someone who has been at both sides of the fence (i.e. Lubavitch and Satmar), it naturally infuriates me when someone compares these groups." Hmmm, a turbulent soul?

R. Goldshmidt is banned from Moscow

(censored)


Ban this! Kinus Hashluchim photos by Shmais.

Yirmy commenting to the The house of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Paris post: Tzemach, this is off topic but since you have addressed this before I would like to respectfully ask if you can verify the following info from your Moscow sources. Apparently Rabbi Pinchas Goldshmidt chief rabbi of Moscow has been told by the Russian government that the reason he was barred from entry into Russia is that he is a 'security' risk. Since this is so patently absurd, it seems to point clearly to members of a rival Jewish association who view Rabbi Goldshmidt as a challenge. Rabbi Goldshmidt is not affiliated with Lubavitch at all...(this was reported on the Israeli chadrey charadim site off of hydepark).

Yirmy, this was not only reported on "chadrey charadim" but on JTA as well. I called Moscow and allegedly there is little know beyond of what is currently published. My source in Moscow is puzzled by the developments. The original version that Slutsker was settling his scores with Goldshmidt is problematic because he has been replaced in his RJC role by Kantor. Members of RJC like Michael Freidman of Alpha Bank, a number two oligarch in Russia, must have a high level connections in the government and should be interested in reinstating the visa for Goldshmidt. The fact that they were not able to do so points to a very high level government official who is behind the ban.

There have been no traces of this affair linked back to R. Berl Lazar yet allegedly R. Lazar has not taken a position. It appears that considering his stature as an official Chief Rabbi of Russia he must have an opinion on the banning of the Chief Rabbi of Moscow. I called Boruch Gorin, Lazar�s spokesman and was told that Boruch is traveling. If any of the readers see R. Lazar or Gorin in Crown Heights this weekend for Kinus HaShluchim please ask them to comment. Let us know what you find out. We will be watching this story.

Empathetic sorrow

A Dvar Torah from Berl of Crown Heights on intransitive and transitive in the same construct.

The house of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in Paris

On the subject of real estate, a mentalblog.com exclusive. As a follow-up to The Lubavitcher Rebbe was a graduate of ESTP in Paris post we asked mentalblog.com senior correspondent in Paris to take photographs. What you see here is the first installment. Below is the house on 9 Rue de Boulard, 14th arr. (the home is the one obstructed by the sidewalk green construction fence) where the Lubavitcher Rebbe lived with his wife while going to ESTP.




We are not in the habit of butchering photos with logos but the pictures are covered by our copyright license.


7 Rue Boulard


9 Rue Boulard, The Rebbe's House. In February 1996, Friedman returned to Paris to check out the building on Rue de Boulard. At the Paris archives, he obtained a full list of tenants from the 1930s: Tchi Que, Chinese. Bruno Rani, Italian. Alexander Muzamin, Russian artist. Another Russian. A journalist. A French waiter. And Menachem Mendel, Russian student. Immediately following, Hayah Schneerson.


11 Rue Boulard

Sharpshooter Markovitz

WWII Soviet Poster.
IDF Paratrooper David Markovitz, who was recruited to the army only eight months ago, became a hero Monday when he killed four Hizbullah terrorists who attempted to abduct a soldier near the border village of Rajar .

Munkatch, Hungary

Amazing video! Includes a clip from the Wedding of Frime Chaye Rivke Shapira - daughter of the Munkatcher Rebbe Eleazer Shapira (author of Minchas Eleazer) to Rabbi Rabinowitz in March 1933. She was the mother of the present Munkatcher and Dinover Rebbes. Includes other scenes of Jewish life in Munkacs, Hungary, both of secular and religious Jews (I like the last clip in the video).

(many thanks to AJHistory by Menachem Butler, a great find)

Jewish demographics in Boston, MA

This is a companion post to Inverse life is possible! post:

Boston has the highest cost of living in USA. Housing market in Boston is very limited. There are some larger mansions or condos but a shortage of even expensive smaller homes suitable for Jewish families. As result of this real estate phenomenon even ultra expensive Newton has attracted more Jews compared to Brookline for example. Sharon, MA has grown. Consider poor Jewish schools and cold New England waspy community and you understand why many traditional Jews have abandoned Boston. Just now Dr. Oster featured on this blog announced that he is leaving for good. There is a long list of solid families that preceded his flight.

Amongst the people who are still staying, there are mostly static individuals who have what I call "a real estate condition". I.e. people who are inert by nature, inherited a house or bought it in the 60-70, some bought houses through a chance trickery. The stifling tendency of these renters and "owners" is in evidence amongst the Anash of Brighton and beyond. This became apparent when we tried to build a new shule. Some of the representatives of the group spent a lifetime complaining that nothing is being done around here but when presented with a possibility for change they get sea sick.

Inverse life is possible!

People who are reading this blog long enough know that there is a bit of saga with a new shule in our neighborhood. So this past Shabbos I couldn�t overcome my craving for the potatoes bathed in mayonnaise and wondered in to have a taste into the "old one".

And it finally dawned on me what a wonderful place is our little shule. One MIT kid taught me an expression "inverse proportion". He used to say that "girls are beautiful in the inverse proportion to the center of the MIT campus�" Eureka, let me explain.

Imagine there would be a place in the world where you can become what you can�t be in real life. Say you dream of being an artist but you are color blind. See in your mind's eye a place where you can become an artist once a week if you wanted too. Wow! It�s like all powerful Edgar Hoover dressing up as fragile girl once a week. Magic!

So is out little shule, it is in inverse proportion to the strengths of the people. A shy person who is quite and reserved insists on making all the announcements. A person who has a hard time managing his lunch box is adamant about being on all the boards. A person who can�t hold a tune if you put a gun to his head insists on starting every nigun. An obedient husband becomes a General in charge of an army. A spiritual constipate becomes the well of knowledge. A person for whom coherent communication is a Himalayan Mountain feels like Walter Cronkite for a fleeting moment never mind that for others this moment feels like an eternity. A person whose business achievement in the "real world" is blaming the other party becomes a top executive Donald Trump. What a great magical garden. Yes inverse life is indeed possible, even for a miraculous day a week. Boruch Hashem.

Akiva to his daughter

Akiva commenting to the Breach to the open! post: "And your alternative is? (And I'm in the middle of such a situation #1 right now)".

My dear dear daughter: I'm so sorry that you had a very difficult experience today, with people you trust, people in authority at the yeshiva, mistreated you today. Read the rest of the letter at Mystical Paths.

Breach to the open!

REMBRANDT, The Sacrifice of Abraham, 1635, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

1) Religious institutions are overrun by nepotism, corruption and incompetence. If you are a FFB you might have been desensitized to this fact, you might have been someone who benefits from nepotism, yet the corroding stench of this realty will fumigate into the nostrils of BTs and FFBs equally.
2) Religious discourse is meandering in a cul-de-sac unable to breach to the open road of confronting and integrating modernity.
3) Our leaders are but the shadows of the former selves, in some cases literally shadows.
4) Disengagement from the modern workforce has created two alternative career paths for a religious Jew: entrepreneurial trickery or debilitating reliance on the government subsidies. Even when you join the workforce, the society pays you for 2.3 children not for 5 or even 10.
5) If you are a thinking BT or FFB you are surrounded by the well meaning clones who are indoctrinated and conditioned for the mediocre logic. You are confronted by people for whom party allegiances have supplanted decency.
6) And finally you are drenched in despair because of the abandonment by the traditional Jews of the legacy of our forefather Avrohom who came from the other side of the river and called his children Ivrym as a reminder. In the interest of the short term survival Jews have deserted the path of searching for the beyond and instead circled the wagons firmly implanting their existence in the inert mud.

All of the above mentioned fundamental conditions existed before and during the administration of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His inability to even slightly dent the curses of the exile renders his legacy as a spectacular failure. He would not be first though.

The aristocrat Dr. Hans Guggenheim

TA: Hans, did you know that I published your sketch of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz drawn during the commemoration of the Rebbe�s 10th Yehrtzeit in Boston? There is a link to the Project Guggenheim in that post as well.
HG: Yes, I saw it.
HG: Let�s starts with the background, the families we were bourn into, the country we were bourn into, the mind that were born into. I am going to begin by telling you a little bit about my families. My mother side comes from Warsaw in Poland. A cousin just wrote a book about family in Poland, very prominent aristocratic family of Polish Jews. My great-great-grandfather was Itzshe Oscher Kleinmann of Warsaw who married Maria Halpern of St. Petersburg. He was in the salt business. His children married into some of the well known Jewish Families in Europe. The other part of my family are Guggenheims. The family from South of Germany, close to Switzerland. So both of my grandfathers Kleinmann and Guggenheim had factories in Berlin in the 20s. The factories were on the same street Ritter Strase. So sooner or later their children, my parents got married.
TA: Is that the same as the "American" Guggenheim family?
HG: There is only one Guggenheim family but we were fairly removed. I knew Peggy Guggenheim well and we were friends.



HG: I grew up in Berlin, beautiful apartment, chauffeur, etc. until Hitler came and the whole thing collapsed. My mother then sent three telegrams asking for help: one to Poland, one to relatives in South Africa and one to London. In London was her cousin who was a former undersecretary of the Stock Exchange in Berlin. When Hitler came to power he was asked to resign and he moved to London. He received my mothers� telegram and took me and my sister to a boarding school in London.



HG: We were in the school till the war broke out between England and Germany. Ironically I and my sister were classified as "Enemy Alien" by the British and interned on an island. My uncle got me out and we were put on a boat to Guatemala. Our boat was attacked by a German submarine but we reached Guatemala. My parents also got a visa to Guatemala in 1939. I began to paint there and had a very successful exhibition of my paintings in 1940, so I though of myself as artist and I was going to become a famous artist. After the war I came to the States.



TA: You house is a "Guggenheim museum" there is this amazing photograph from 1865, your great-great-grandfather Itzshe Oscher Kleinmann in a top hat surrounded by the family. There is a note that says �sitting on the ground are parents of Andre Sitroen. Is that the automobile family? I didn�t know they were Jewish?



HG: Yes they were a Dutch Jewish family that settled in Paris. My great-great-grandfather was so wealthy that he offered a hundred thousand (?) gold rubles dowry to his daughters who married outside of Poland. That is how I became related to the big Jewish European families. [TA: after the interview I found this about Andre Citroen the founder of the Citroen Automotive: Andre Citroen was born in Paris on the 5th of February 1878, the fifth child of a middle class prosperous Jewish family whose origins were from the outskirts of Amsterdam. There they had traded in 'exotic fruit' from which they took the name Limoenman. Andre's grandfather however became a jeweler and changed his name to the more up-market Citroen, the Dutch for Lemon.]
TA: Hans, what is this water color portrait next to the family pictures?



HG: This water color is a portrait of Roman Vishniac. Roman is my second cousin and he grew up in Moscow, like you. He became famous for his photographs of the chassidic Jews before the war. I painted Roman in 1949 in New York.



TA: Fascinating, Hans. In the next part of the interview we will talk about and show your work.

The last Sicho

This is the last Sicho on the WLCC list. Is this the last Rebbe's Sicho (audio)?
This post is a sequel to the Pesha Leah LaPine Sicho and Lo and behold: what happened of that Sicho?

Sholom Keller uncut

After the COOP we went to an "alternative club" on Harvard Square. Hence the music you hear in the background. Here is an audio file where Sholom Keller explains the wisdom of "pissing in the cornflakes" (see The Lyricist Sholom Keller).

Unchosen at Harvard Coop

Hella Winston the author of The Unchosen spoke today in Cambridge at the Harvard Coop. She is adorable and shy!


Sholom bough four obscure books in the store and I have a suspicion he is actually going to read them.


Here Sholom is trying to convert a store clerk into anarchism. The most amazing thing was that she was receptive and interested in the fundamentals of the "gift economy".

Pesha Leah LaPine Sicho

Pesha Leah LaPine was murdered in her home on Lefferts Avenue in the winter of 1992 (~February), shortly before the Rebbe's first stroke. Here is the audio of the Sicho. (Via WLCC).

Dispel Fantasies commenting to the The Lyricist Sholom Keller post:

All I can say is that Sicho was clearly in the opposite tone of the other Sichos in those months and the crux point was: despite the attempts to make the redemption materialize and this happened? I believe that they played the sicho right after the Rebbe said it, and afterwards (I believe even that night) no zecher of it!

berl, crown heights: Dispel, you are correct about that sicho. It also made waives outside of Lubavitch. And, speaking of 'blog connections', here is one for you: later that year (I think in was in the fall of '92) we spent a Shabbos at the Homowack (I know - yuck!) where I met a young Torah VeDaas guy who said Yudel Keller was his uncle(?). Nice smart guy. We got to talking, wives too. The conversation turned to Lubavitch and Moshiach. And to the Rebbe's stroke. And then the guy actually told me he thought the stroke might have been a punishment for what the Rebbe said in the 'LaPine sicho�...

Shoshanna Silcove writes:

I knew Pesha Lea (OBM). Pesha Lea was a nice, verify normal BT American girl from the South who married a school teacher, had many kids, and live in CH. She was sweet, unassuming, sincere, and made sacrifices to live in CH, saying that she missed living in the tree lined suburbs she was used to, but felt it was important that her children be near the Rebbe. The LaPine's lived very modestly, and Pesha Lea worked part time outside the home, and often spoke about the difficulties in keeping up with her very active brood of children.

The shock of her horrific murder was compounded by several factors: the killer had been going around for a few days prior asking other women if they needed any work done in their houses. One woman said that on the day of the murder that she had informed the CH Community Council security people that she thought this guy may have been suspicious but that they did nothing about it. She bemoaned this saying that she felt Pesha Lea could have been saved if the security people had acted, she knew she could have identified the killer to the police easily.

Also, Pesha Lea was dropped off during the day in front of her house by a neighbor with grocery packages. The killer somehow slipped in while she was taking the packages in from her front step. Her two year old was there and witnessed the entire bloody assualt and murder.

Pesha Lea was married to a Kohain. She fought off her killer's advances that would have rendered her halachically impure to her husband forever, and this resistance could have very well enraged the killer further. She struggled intensely. If she had remained passive, if she had given in, she may have in fact lived. The murder was grisly, bloody, and brutal. She suffered while her baby watched.

After the murder, the community reaction consisted of:
1) anger at the CH Community Council's inability to provide security.
2)for many months after that women in CH lived in intense fear.
3) The Rebbe's words in that sicha loomed over us giving us a strange feeling of foreboding we never felt from the Rebbe before.
4)The Rebbe came out as her hearse passed in front of 770. There is a famous photo of this moment on the cover of NY Times Magazine and the expression of grief on the Rebbe's face was poignant and unusual. The Rebbe had not gone to funerals at all in decades, and this special show of kovod for Pesha Lea was an unexpected surprise. After all, she was not a big macher, not a FFB with yichus, not rich, as she was just an unassuming humble balabasta, a BT that never stood out from all the other BT's in CH.

The fact that the Rebbe alluded to Pesha Lea's greatness in that sicha should have taught us all that in this world of falseness, we can never judge a Yid's true stature. While there are many people who receive kovod, they may or may not be the one's who reach the highest levels in avoda. Pesha Lea's acts of self sacrifice should have made us all realize that a Yid's value or greatness cannot be judged by externalialities like yichus, money, or Torah learning.

Otmstit Nerazumnym Khazaram

In the town of Belogorod, Russia a new monument commemorating 1040 years since the destruction of the of Judaic Kingdom of Khazars.

Rebel Jew gone BT

Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: The BT Expericnce - Part I.
Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: Our Little Shteibl (or Chabad House) - Part II.
Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: The Baal Tshuva Experience - Part III.
Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: BT Experince - part IV - Paradise Lost.
Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: Revenge of the Myth - part V.
Rebel Jew: Thoughts on Judaism: Revenge of the Myth - Part VI

see also:
mentalblog.com: "Love bombing"
mentalblog.com: Twisting her psyche into a pretzel
mentalblog.com: Breaking the BT for a higher purpose
mentalblog.com: Homeless, unmarried, forever shunned
mentalblog.com: Closing down the segregated BT yeshivos

Schneur Zalman of NY comments:

I find it tedious to read the constant stream of complaints coming from BT's . And as such I just skim through these comments. I will just add that the following comments are not directed against individual Baal Teshuvoth, or do they minimize the pain these people feel they suffer. Everyone has their problems. Frum people have their problems too. How did it feel to be mocked by other Jews because we wore Kippoth. Some of these kids years later decided to be come BT's too when Judaism became hip. We spoke Yiddish, not only did the non-Orthodox laugh at us, but even the orthodox called this un-American.

Did you guys ever experience being called dirty Jews because we wore Kippoth as kids? How did it feel never having pizza or eating out? Yes no pizza or other kosher junk food. How did feel to either attend public school or go away miles from your parents� home to a Jewish school?

How did we children of Holocaust survivors cope without extended families with open wounds festering less than 10 years after the conclusion of the War. In many cases of these communities the Germans were so to speak the shadchanim and I won't bother to explain. And our American Jewish neighbors had large extended families always visiting, etc.

How did we feel when our parents could not speak English or teach us about American culture. We overcame these issues and did our best. I believe most Baale teshuva are not complainers, but others complain. Why?? Probably for the same reason they became frum to begin with, the need for attention and the desire for total creature comfort. Many will never be happy.

No one is forcing the BT Jews to be frum. Many would probably be better people if they returned to the Messora of their grandparents of eating Chinese on Sundays and the GoodBye Columbus lifestyle. They could do their Gottesdienst at the local Reform Temple too. Others would benefit from a strong dose of Modern orthodoxy or a close relative of mine calls it "take it easy Judasim". Certainly a transition period of MO Judaism between the 2 extremes would be very beneficial. Still others may realize that Judaism calls for sacrifice its called "Ol malchus Shomayim " its a yoke not a vacation. The texts never promised anyone anything except for a hard time with its spiritual rewards.

Contrarian thinking

Floating bridge in Magdeburg: Europe's Largest Water Bridge Opens.

Sam Szaposhnik commenting to the The Lyricist Sholom Keller post:

To all the folks closely analyzing Spc. Keller's level of religious practice: If you were running a Chabad House/Kiruv center, and someone like this comes your way, would you judge him and analyze his attitude to frumkeit in this manner and proceed to exploit his parents perceived eccentricities; or would you project feelings of nonjudgmental Ahavas Yisroel?

One would think that persons who had the benefit of a Lubavitch education at some point in their lives, would express the appropriate sensibilities instead of this "klein-kepeldick" self righteous "misnado-centric" diatribe that results from ignorance induced arrogance. Let's remember the words of the Tanna "do not judge you fellow until you in his place"... Perhaps these blog posts can serve as an opportunity for us to reevaluate our own perspectives, so that we find the ability to make every Yid comfortable... Thanks again to Reb Tzemach and Specialist Keller.

The Lyricist Sholom Keller

REMBRANDT, Return of the Prodigal Son, 1636, Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam. This is a pen version of