Yiddishkeit or Pluralistic Judaism? Mrs. Blogs decides

I owe the teshuva I am about to do to Daniel Finkelstein (deputy editor of The Times). His comments in this week's JC were so pathetically ignorant I felt sorry for him. Does he think Dayan Ehrentrau's rulings on Jewish life and what constitutes a Jew are based on the learned Dayan's personal opinions and viewpoints?? Surely an intellectual like Mr. Finkelstein can reason that dayanim make rulings based on Jewish law, tryng to preserve our ancient heritage as much in-tact as possible so that it doesn't just disintegrate into mere culture? To a Liberal Jew, however, Judaiam is exactly that: a cultural identity. A heritage in theory, not for actully putting into practice today (but for acknowledging its greatness nevertheless). I would have thought that before one can describe oneself as Liberal, Orhodox or anything else, one must first be educated in Jewish matters to know 'what is what'; what one is taking on or rejecting. How can an ignoramous say catagorically "I am a Liberal Jew"?? With respect, Mr. Finkelstein, how do you know you are a Liberal Jew?? Did you choose this road after learning that Reform, Orthodox or Ultra-Orthodox are not your thing??? Or did you just find yourself born into Liberal Jewish life and you were content to drift along with that, so that actually you have never really addressed the question "what makes me a Jew at all, Liberal or any other?" ????? And as for your non-Jewish colleagues who you describe as being "dismissive about" or "hostile" towards ultra-orthodoxy, the mind boggles! What do they know about it? Surely this is where the word "arrogance" is most in place, not with reference to Dayan Ehrentrau and his stalwart efforts to keep Judaism Jewish! The dayanim and rabbonim who signed the declaration know what they are standing up for. They are not courting the popular vote, and they are not interested in whether an ignoramous who thinks he is educated enough in Jewish matters to describe himself as Liberal, thinks "the argument for very strict orthodoxy is very weak". They are the trustees of a highly precious fund, to be preserved for posterity. It is their duty to preserve it and to safeguard it for the future generations. It would not have been "wrong" on your part to let your comments pass Mr. F., it would actually have been very wise. But you have helped me to see the errors of some of my past ways, and for this I am indebted to you. Now I, on the other hand, as an educated Jew, CAN describe myself as Liberal, Orthodox, Ultra-Orthodox, or Ultra-Liberal - but I am happy just to be Mrs. Joe Blogs. Let the less learned partake of Limmud. Chief Rabbi, your job awaits you.

Giluy Shechina vs. Giluy Daas

So much has happened since I attended the Chief Rabbi's induction back in September, I'm not even sure if he is still in office.  If he is, OH DEAR.  Anyone who thinks the Big Bang has already happened has heard nothing yet.

According to the Giluy Daas that appeared in the Lech-Lecha JT, attending the Limmud Festival and calling oneself 'orthodox' cannot go together.  But the Chief, who believes himself to be an Orthodox Rabbi of Anglo-Jewry, has vowed to attend Limmud this year.  Where on earth does this leave the average orthodox yid who follows rabbinic edicts to the end of the world?

My reading of this edict is that orthodoxy has (once again) tightened its chastity belt in the face of ever-increasing threats to halachic Judaism.  Modern approaches to modern problems went out of the window when the Enlightenment first surfaced, and we have been living a reactionary Judaism ever since. 

In order to blot out the Reform approaches, we have closed our minds to MODERN yet still ORTHODOX approaches to halachic issues of our day, some of which probably need not be issues at all without us being any less loyal to orthodoxy; we have imposed ever greater stringencies on how we practise our halachic yiddishkeit; and we have gone overboard with our defensive attacks on mixing with people who hold wider views and values.  But we have not been able to stem the tide of Reform Judaism.  It has taken hold despite the best efforts of the rabbis.   

Now there is a happy union of Reform and Orthodox coming together, NOT to throw eggs at and to lambast one another but to celebrate what they have in common.  It will be the nearest thing to a hippy convention that Judaism can offer.  Real Achdus.  Except that the right wing will not be participating because our rabbis don't want us hearing about modern solutions to problems like agunah, driving on shabbos, family purity vs. multiple wives and numerous other contemporary issues.  They don't have the answers, but they know Reform is not the solution. 

It follows that Limmud  poses a serious threat to rabbinic Judaism and along with denim skirts, trousers for women (permitted by R. Ovadia Yosef I understand) and unsupervised milk it must be shunned on pain of no shidduchim for our kids and similar threats. 

Poor old us - threatened not only by Reform influences but by our own rabbis holding us over a barrel.  Personally, I blame Hillel and Shamai for encouraging debate in the first instance.  

   

Hit a cyclist - and make a donation to Kisharon.

Now you wouldn't think this could be a topic for discussion amongst decent yidden.  Cyclists, after all, are part of Hashem's creation and we are dutibound to thank Him for the bad as well as for the good.

So when Mr. Blogs arrived home on Friday and showed me the dent in his cycling helmet, commenting "boruch Hashem I'd left my brains at home this morning anyway", I was a little surprised.  After all, he only cycles from Temple Fortune to Grodz - and even then only on a Friday.  What could have happened?

It transpired that a Mrs. XXX, driving her 6X6 [with a sticker showing her support for Kisharon in the back window] had been a little too eager to squeeze passed another car and had given poor old hubby minus inches clearance.  Excellent!  Support Kisharon!  Drive selfishly and donate brain-damaged victims as a result.  Otherwise you risk arriving at your destination 1 minute later and that is too unthinkable for words.

Fast food for thought

One thing that makes me see red in the great heat is the sight of a sheitel-clad lady walking down the road, looking smart  and 'together' in her heels and "kosher" outfit while the rest of society turns to liquid; and beside her is her husband - no sheitel, not even socks; just shorts and a breezey shirt (or even a t-shirt) keeping him from overheating.  How insensitive can some men be??

 If I dressed in some (thigh-covering) 'shorts' and a loose shirt or t-shirt, sleeves above the elbow, and kept my hair cool and free, I would be looking at my Get papers now.

 But I have decided to stay cool and b'tznuah and not get my tichel in a twist.  Will just ask hubby for a new car with state-of-the-art air con; and also for a fitted outdoor kitchen.  And some new earrings, a new set of cool, breezey maternity dresses and new baby to match.  Wipe the sweat of your brow, dear.  I'm the one who can't take the heat  - or get out of the kitchen. 

The Chazon Isha's visit to North West London

Notwithstanding Chief Rabbi Sacks's anti-charedi remarks at last week's dinner - (in our house we eat once a week) - the fact is that my revered hubby and I were shocked when we visited the so-called frum neighbourhood of Golders Green over shabbos pinchos.  It might gladden Lord Sacks's heart to see so many women in sheitles and stilettoes, but it broke ours.  "High class Mayfair Ladies of the Night they look like" said the Visionary (as if he knows).  "Do they even know how to remove tissues from the box ke'halochoh on shabbos??  Do they go to any serious shiurim??? - (HOW DARE THEY?!!)" 

We were walking down the main autobahn leading from one eidah charedissssss to the next, when we heard a woman talking (on shabbos!!) to the effect that she "doesn't think her daughter has ever spoken to a non-Jew".  I should hope not!  What is the chiddush in that?  Why should her daughter have to speak to a non-Jew?  Why should she have to speak at all?  Isn't it enough that she is able to daven mincha and talk to Him?  Just because there are goyim in the town doesn't mean we have to sell our holy neshomos.  Only ask the Visionary about women talking - to yidden, goyim or even to themselves.  Where is it written that this is permitted?

Anyway, we finally reached where we were going when suddenly the Visionary has a sha'aloh.  Who is he going to ask in a place like GG in 5773 (may we live to see it), a place where there are no real rabbonim to talk of?  But first you need to know the sha'aloh.  It is this:  if the Chief Rabbi of a Commonwealth of Nations calls a section of yidden "a danger to the future of the Jewish people", and there could chas ve'sholom be some truth to these words, is it permitted to mingle with such people, (especially on shabbos)?  What could we do! Here we were right in the middle of Golders Green, on shabbos, and no-one to ask.  So I said I would put out an appeal for guidance in this matter, which is why I am now blogging. 

Not long ago a learned judge described a section of the mainstream community as having "religious schizophrenia", but my revered husband and I are of the opinion (and ours is the opinion that has stood the test of time remember), that there is religious schizophrenia in ALL sections of the communtiy.  So we are getting the next plane back to our own world, where we only have to mix with our own kind of schizophrenics and where we are not subject to the witterings of intellectual giants (like the Chief Rabbi). 

Gut Voch from my very learned husband, and his household.

PC Ben Yitzchok of the Sin'u Ra Division.

A letter appeared in the Tribune (6 June '13) entitled "Chief Rabbi's valediction", and it fell to Ben Yitzchok to offer a swift reply.  The gist of it was that it is a duty on any Gd-fearing yid to "highlight the sinful lifestyle" of those who are, sadly, to be tolerated.  This includes reform Jews, mechalelei Shabbos, homosexuals and possibly a few others.  Whilst we must legally tolerate the actual people, we dare not tolerate the sins.  Let me sharpen my sword and prepare to defend holiness to the hilt then:

If I must take chastisement from a fellow human being in matters of Jewish law, I expect my chastiser to be perfect.  If my chastiser can her(or him)self be criticised, their criticism of me is of no consequence.  This is in line with principles such as "let he who is without sin cast the first stone", or "he who comes to a Court of Equity shall come with clean hands".  It is a kind of natural justice.

Now it is no secret that Charedim do not have such a wonderful reputation outside our own inward-looking communitiy.  We cause heaps of trouble where-ever we touch down, and justify all of it using our own principles and values, regardless of the rights of others to their interpretations and values.  A classic example is the farcical charedi reaction to the "Women of the Wall" prayer meetings.  Instead of leading by example, thereby showing the beauty of traditional orthodox Jewish life, we demonstrate (for want of a better word!) how out-of-touch, intolerant, bigotted and arrogant we are.  With our scorn we invite scorn.  With our arrogance we invite contempt.  With our intolerance we invite anti-Torah feeling (and by definition we cause the Name of Heaven to be brought into disrepute).  "Gays Out of the Beis Medrash!" might tick all the right boxes for Ben Yitzchok and his ilk of zealots and fundamentalists, but if I was a gay yeshiva bochur this approach could be the death of me.  (How self-righteous would my chastisers feel then?) 

How do we think it looks (if we think about it at all) when we ask sha'alos about "how to change a nappy on shabbos", whilst at the same time looking down our noses at other yidden who might not be keeping shabbos halachically - (but who Hashem seems able to tolerate)? 

Get off your high horse, Ben Yitzchok.  You are what you are, like your gay chaver is what he is, and like your reform brothers are what they are.  You don't have the monopoly on anything.  Get your kop round that and you will be on the way to frum yiddishkeit. 

The Hole In The Wall

I am reading an article entitled "Yair, Listen Up!" (Hamodia, 9/5/'13).  I glean that Menachem Gesheid (self-confessed charedi journalist in Israel) was invited to a dinner at the President's Residence, attended by President Obama, that he found it too difficult to comply with the required dress code (to wear a tie) because of a flippant "WHAT DOES A GERRER CHASID UNDERSTAND ABOUT TIES?" (my caps); that he didn't even have one in his pocket just in case the rules should turn out to apply equally to him as to everyone else; and that in the end he had to be bailed out by the President of the State of Israel who donated one of his own ties to him, for the dinner and for all eternity.

What is so difficult about a tie that a Gerrer chosid cannot comprehend? 

More to the point, who does this would-be 'chochom' think he is kidding?  Was it against his principles to show respect both for his own government on the international scene and for President Obama that he had the gall to show up inappropriately dressed (even though he had been told in advance what to wear)?

And to laugh it off afterwards as being the oversight of a charedi yid who doesn't know his tie from his tefillin, as though the general public will see this as funny rather than pathetic, this is just too much for the likes of Mrs. Blogs.  Because in the very same edition of Hamodia we were entertained by a Ruth Lichtenstein (do I know her?) with her "Open Letter to Neshot Hakotel" (p.B50) (not sure I would call this any kind of a letter but it got the pain off her chest I hope), clearly upset by the cheek of the Women of the Wall who, every Rosh Chodesh, conform to their values rather than to hers, at "the ultimate symbol of unity" (the kosel).  Unlike the President though, who imposed his dress code on everybody he invited to his own Residence, the Women of the Wall do not impose their style of dress on all women who come to the kosel. 

Nevertheless I think Mr. Gesheid should speak out loud and clear for the rights of people everywhere to dress in a way they feel at peace with themselves, be they charedim or Reform Jews or followers of the Rabbeinu Tam.  He should raise the flag "Let us be true to ourselves as Gerrer Chasidim, American Women or whatever we identify with". 

Let us all disrespect one another's values and all be equally patronising and arrogant about it, and may moshiach come speedily in our days.