"cast me forth into the sea, so shall the sea be calm unto you"
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:13 PM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:20 PM
I will contribute $1,000 to Marvin Schick's favorite charity - probably those who pay for him to have a column that no one else will regularly publish - if he can provide any documentation that I have "exalted marrying out." Schick just made it up as he has the rest of his attack on me.Alan Dershowitz, The Harvard Crimson, April 28, 1997: Why Judaism Must Embrace Intermarriage:
Jews must adopt a different approach to the increasing reality of intermarriage. We must become much more welcoming of the non-Jewish spouse. Refusal to permit intermarriage has failed as a deterrent mechanism. We must try another way. If a non-Jew wants to marry a Jew and is prepared to have a rabbi participate in the ceremony, a rabbi should be willing to lend his or her Jewish participation to so important an event.(via The Zionist Conspiracy - Joe Schick)
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:01 PM
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Last time I was in Crown Heights the Tzanzer einikle of Boston told me I should daven in the Kollel, "away from the 770 mishugas". I was sitting at a table with a father and son (the faces are familiar but I don't know their names, they sit one table behind the Tzanzer Einikle of Boston�s father). During the entire davening the father and son did not greet me with Hello, Gut Shabos, Shalom, what's up or any other acknowledgment. So this past Shabbos I wanted to try something different.
9:45 Am, Shabbos Vaera, upstairs in 770 Eastern Parkway: I am sitting by the bench behind the bima at the exit door. A fellow walks in and puts a bottle of vodka in the middle of the table. Itche Morozov takes the bottle, pours a full plastic cup and drinks it. I am thinking he has "probably davened with an earlier minyan" but I can�t hear him make a Kiddush. About ten minutes later Itche drinks another full cup washing it down with one quarter size cookie. After the Shmone Esre Itche is joined but two or three bale batim who each bench a Kiddush on full cup of vodka. Kohen the optometrist also makes a Kiddush after his aliah. The mood of the congregation is improving and people start picking on the gabbay.
A darshan walks in to present a Dvar Torah. His delivery is smooth and loud. I don�t know his name but I remember him years ago when he came to 770 from Israel as a bocher. He is holding between mochin and middos and reassures the congregation that he will be "done in two minutes". He says the light is just around the corner and concludes with a forceful Yechi.
Now, Itche Morozov benches an official kiddsuh on a third full cup. People around him protest that he doesn�t have enough mezonos for a proper Kiddush. Itche�s grandparents Honya Morozov and Avrohom Meyor Drizin appear to dance around the bimah. Itche swears to me that he can "drive a truck in a straight line even after three cups of vodka". By the time we get to Hu Elokeinu Itche Morozov wants to rearrange the furniture.
Knowing that they have only half an hour before they all fall asleep the congregation proceeds with an inspiring Mincha. I drift away looking for someone who can give me a hazora of Rabbi Cunin�s maamar that I missed in R. Raskin�s room at 9:00 AM.
Lechaim, Reb Naftoli Citron!
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 6:59 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:16 AM
Prediction: the Israeli elections will have more surprises for us. The poll predictions are often considerably different from the final election tally.
The Israeli electorate can still move in any direction. Tommy Lapid has left Shinui, which is now squabbling over millions of Shekalim they all claim. Shinui is predicted to not get a single seat - and Shas is laughing (all the way to the bank?). There are more Knesset corruption revelations coming up every week.
Much can still happen here. And a lot of that will, too. Stay tuned....
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:45 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 5:39 PM
The Chofetz Chaim once related the following parable: A wealthy man had two sons in law. One ate only fleishiks the other only milchiks. Hence they had to eat at two separate tables. No questions asked. The Gvir bought two fancy tables. But then the wealthy man lost all his money and both sons in law were reduced to eating kasha or potatoes. Now they could eat at one table. And that table was a simple wooden table.
This was a parable the Holy Chofetz Chaim told in relation to Chasidim and Mitnagdim. It can also be told in relation to Chagas and Chabad. I know little about Breslev so I am very hesitant in saying anything about them. But Chabad is hardly the way today as described by Rabbi Citron. This applies to prayer, contemplation, role of the Rebbe until 1994 and certainly the wild Messianic fervor that marks most of the movement today either begaluy or in secret, etc. As a matter of fact the past 50 years have seen a watering down of these concepts in Chabad, and in essence the Chabad Rebbe not only became the Chagas Rebbe but THE SUPER CHAGAS REBBE. He was the Superman the Tzaddik par excellence in other words the Messiah!
Most of the distinction drawn by Citron exist only on paper, not in reality in 2006. Indeed there are sociological, educational and cultural differences amongst Chabad and other Chassidim, but I think the average Breslever and Chabad BT have much more in common than Reb Nissan Neminov had with Reb Levi Yitzchok Bender.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:13 PM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:17 PM
Firstly I am perplexed why everyone focuses on denominational aspects of the original article while no one mentions the following reference to Alan Dershowitz:
IT IS WRONG and hypocritical for Chabad to highlight a person who has written nastily about Orthodox Jews, who has welcomed intermarriage in his family, and who has exalted marrying out. Any attempt to justify what was shameless is no more than sophistry, although it will further the process of self-deception that has already gone too far.We are not merely talking about welcoming of an unclassified Jew but we are talking about the elevation of a Jew who professes ideas alien to the Rebbe�s message to the head of the table!
Still I do not think this is uniquely Lubavitcher issue. Indeed reluctance of Shluchim to assert their opinions is the consequence of the client relationship towards the congregants with absolute dependence on their financial support. If you livelihood was dependent on a Joe Shmo, you will close your eyes to him eating pork too�
Secondly in this respect I fail to see how a Chabad Shaliach is different from 99% of Rabbis who have to make deals with their souls every day and tune their message to the wishes of the boards. Granted the boards might be orthodox, etc. but a Rabbi will rebuke his congregation at his own risk. This is a systemic non denominational problem in America.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:45 PM
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posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:04 PM
I never was thrown out of Lakewood. R. Aharaon Kotler and the leaders made sure of that. It was the cold shoulder and insults that made me leave. I never said thrown out. You surmised that. Besides who authorized you to print it. You want to hurt a mokom Torah? You are just a pest and should be ....
The cold shoulder was from the students who were not authorized and took matters into their own hands. The Chofetz Chayim talked about "life". Maybe, you want the opposite. Do teshvah while you still can.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:51 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 6:27 PM
Everybody experiences far more than he understands. Yet it is experience, rather than understanding, that influences behavior.The Jewish tradition seems to claim the opposite. Jews are taught to frame the world through understanding and the legacy of understanding. How counterintuitive.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:11 AM
In 2000, 613 Jewish babies were born in Russia [600 of them to Shluchim ;-)], while 8,218 Jewish people died there.UPDATE: Jewish Law - The Establishment of Maternity & Paternity in Jewish and American Law.
...Seventy percent of Jewish women in Russia and 80 percent of Jewish men had non-Jewish spouses in 2000. The intermarriage rate in the U.S.is about 50 percent, and it ranges between 35 percent and 44 percent in South America and western Europe.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:51 PM
faruq commenting to Forget about Schick:
The inability to critically assess the movement�s weaknesses is an unfortunate illness. Forget about media outlets, a farbrengen, with no cameras and recorders, is off limits for critique as well. It is a mindset. The Chabad activists have difficulty distinguishing between PR campaigns and farbrengens, or even a plain conversation tete-a-tete. Marvin has captured the image of a young shaliach very well. Growing up amid a torrent of PR propaganda must have a long term effect on one�s personality. Partially it could be a reaction to a long anti-Chabad crusade by the orthodox establishment. Hell, even such a sheigetz as myself, when I encounter a misnaged, I loose my Chabad criticizing facility, and instead thank Almighty for my lot.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:11 PM
For the moment let�s disregard the message of Marvin. Let�s focus instead on the knee jerk defensive reaction to both of his articles. Let�s make a hypothetical assumption that there are problems and issues worth talking about in any group of people. The movement has about 20 associated web sites, magazines, newspapers, etc. And there is not a single media outlet that has room for self reflection or honest questioning. All that is allowed in schools, shuls, in print and on the internet is blind cheerleading and mythology. Do you think this all on the defensive movement has a chance of retaining it�s brightest in the atmosphere of total censorship?
Take as an example Lazar�s cheerleading full of creepy militarist jargon declaring that the world is on the verge of being conquered. And then contrast that with the reality of the ongoing disintegration and assimilation of the Russian Jewry. What exactly is he conquering bedsides oligarch money looted in turn from the Russian people (suspires, surprise there is antisemitism) and where does he lead the army?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:58 PM
Chabad fought fiercely on the "Who Is a Jew?" issue in Israel, while in the Former Soviet Union - where it does much great work - which now has an intermarriage rate of 80%, it spreads its wings wider, acting as if this statistic has few implications. It is important to ask what Chabad is seeking to accomplish if four out of five Jews are marrying out, this after decades of high intermarriage under the Soviets. It is also important to ask what Chabad has accomplished if four out of five Jews continue to marry out.
...The result is a pattern not seen for a long while in Jewish life, although it appears in other religions. There is a wide and growing behavioral disparity between the clergy and laity. This suits the emissaries and their families who can live as Orthodox Jews and engage in the work that they are deeply committed to and it suits a large majority of lay people who somehow are involved in Chabad because they can comfortably continue their minimalistic Jewish lifestyle, including intermarriage and driving to shul on Shabbos. I doubt that this arrangement accords with the way Chabad operated elsewhere in previous periods.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 10:17 PM
I remember hearing Rav Shaya Beilin Shlita who had a zchus of being kicked out of Lakewood and eventually getting his Smicha from Rav Soloveitchik ranting in the midst of a Chabad Shavuos ice cream party, complaining that most of the participants will be driving. This is a normal reflexive reaction of a traditional Jew.
But taking congregants from other Shuls??? I can only hope... Could someone please take away Jews from the stuffed up Yong Israel of Brookline? But no. I don�t see any evidence of Chabad stealing people from the traditional congregations. But I see plenty of evidence of the incumbent Shluchim being wrong for the task, incapable of attracting anyone, let alone stealing from other places. I see evidence of neglect by the "central Chabad", when even an attempt to built a Kollel fell through because of the financial squabbles between the local Shluchim. Meanwhile this town is underserviced or serviced by the wrong people. Please come here and steal from the wretched local Shuls, do us all a favor! Instead the people who are most afraid of Shluchim are the other Shluchim and they do their best to perpetuate incompetence and prevent influx of any talent capable of standing on their own spiritual and financial feet, let alone stealing from the local congregations.
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 9:24 PM
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 11:40 PM
RABBI KOGAN DOES NOT WEAR A YECHI KIPPAH Rabbi Kogan entered the room with the attacker into the office of his soninlaw- He was assaulted by the attacker who attempted to STAB him- Rabbi Kogan held the fellows hand while he actually tried to stab him and the knife ripped Rabbi Kogans Kapote and then hit him on the head with the stub of the knife, while being attacked his HAT and BLACK NON YECHI KIPPAH fell to the floor. After his son tackled the killer to the floor Rabbi Kogan could not find his Kippah in the blood and was handed a Yechi Kipah from someone nearby......... If this makes any difference at all..
Hey, Akiva, do you now understand what news is?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 8:37 AM
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