Worth a Read

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  A short collection of articles published in the last few days: 
• Parashablog - The famous proof of the Zohar being a forgery "Esnoga" and the follow up
• Dave Barry has a hilarious recap of 2010. I especially liked these paregraphs:

Iran continued to develop nuclear weapons, all the while insisting that they would be used only for peaceful scientific research, such as -- to quote President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- "seeing what happens when you drop one on Israel."

Elsewhere on the disaster scene, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull (literally, "many syllables") volcano erupts, sending huge clouds of ash into the atmosphere and forcing airlines throughout northern Europe to ground flights. Greece, although not directly affected, announces it will take six months off, just in case; France, as an added precaution, surrenders.

• From Standing Point Mag - Warning to the US: Don't Play by Islamic Rules. Don't agree with most of it, but still a very good read. (Via)
• Harav Beni Lou writes about the "Rabbainm Letter" and Democracy. 
• And finally this lovely bit of satire, on right wing education! (hat tip: Negev Rock City)

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Being Brave Still Works!

According to NRG the most popular "Alon Shabbat" (small weekly pamphlet handed out in shul on Shabbat) is "Olam Kattan" - and this is by a very long way. It beats other older Alonim such as "Shabbat Be'Shabbato". However it is also more read in the religious community then "Makor Rishon" and "Beshevah" both full pledged newspapers aimed at the religious market. 

So why is an Alon officially aimed at younger readers the most popular Shabbat reading for Dati-Leumi readers? Simply put - it is pluralistic, brave and somewhat entertaining. I can't think of another religious paper that would have dared to publish some of the stuff Olam Katan has. When they wrote about religious gays for example, they let everyone write their opinions. They even published a letter by a religious gay, telling the Rabbanim that they didn't know what they were talking about. They published both Pro and Anti opinions about the "Rabbanim Letter". And this is all in a pamphlet that is mostly read in shul!

The entertainment normally comes from a small section called "SMS Questions" where Harav Aviner and Harave Eliyahu (the one from the Rabbanim letter) answer SMS size Halachic questions that are sent in. It has become a common game for people to ask each other in Shul the questions, and see if you can get it right. The other form of entertainment is their letter section, where every week the Haredi-Zioninst (Hardal) camp and the more liberal camp battle it out. 

Their high circulation numbers prove a much contended point. The Dati-Leumi public wants to debate all issues openly. We want a paper which is willing to tackle all issues seriously. It would be nice, if it wasn't a pamphlet, and wasn't aimed at teens!

the Talmud is not a business manual??

Newsweek has a great piece called "Selling the Talmud as a Business Guide". Seems that somehow the Chinese have decided that the Talmud is the secret of why Jews are supposedly great businessman.

Titles such as Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules, The Illustrated Jewish Wisdom Book, and Know All of the Money-Making Stories of the Talmud share the shelves with stories of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates. There’s even a Talmud hotel in Taiwan inspired by “the Talmud’s concept of success” that features a copy of the book Talmud Business Success Bible in every room. With the increasing interest in business education in China, and a rise in sales of self-help literature, the production of business guides to the Talmud has exploded. The guides are like the Chinese equivalents of books such as Sun Tzu and the Art of Business.

 

Personally, I am less then happy about this image.  I can't help but think that having a billion Chinese think Judaism=Money is going to come back to bite us one day in the future. Sadly I am sure that some Jews are reading this article and feel proud at the image of the "clever Jew" portrayed here. I cringe.  Newsweek is somewhat sensitive to the fear of Anti-Semitism and comments:

"The Chinese perception of Jews as expert moneymakers does not have the religion-based antagonism that often accompanies the same stereotype elsewhere in the world"

However I am not convinced. The stereotype might not be negative in China yet, but I am sure that sooner or later the west will successfully manage to export the negative connotation.

Additionally and more importantly, I am sad to see that instead of looking to Judaism for its moral teachings, China is looking to Judaism as a capitalist guidebook. This is especially more distressing as ever more Israelis and Jews look eastward for their spirituality. Why are we looking at them for their ancient learning, and they are looking at us thinking we can teach them only the secrets of making money?

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Israel IQ - And what is Wales?

Stand with us has published a short video called Israel IQ. Basically you see a bunch of UCLA students who have no knoweldge of the Middle-East.

Sadly I'm really not disturbed. I studied Law in Israel, and I clearly remember that a few law students could not find any European country on the map. I also remember a senior lawyer at a big law department of a well known Jewish-Israeli organization, asking me what the hell Wales was. Not everyone lives and breathes the Middle-East. I don't expect every student on an american campus to know anything about Israel.

Hat Tip: Eldar of Zion

A great day for Democracy?

I can't help but wonder about all the people (which is virtually everyone who spoke on the news) who are commenting how the guilty verdict against former president Katzav is a sign of the strength of Israeli democracy. What would they have said if he was found not guilty? Would that have shown that Israeli democracy is weak? Is it only a great day for democracy if he is guilty? 

The great day for democracy that they are thinking of, happened when Katzav was put on trial. Anyone claiming that his conviction is a great day, is showing a lack of belief in the legal system - and may even be hinting that the conviction was not based solely on the case at hand. 

The days when Judges Judged.

Woe to the generation that judges its judges and woe to the generation that has to judge its judges." 

(Midrash Rabba, Ruth)

I am sure a sleepless night is taking place for many a lawyer in the state prosecution in Israel. Tomorrow a verdict in the trial of former president Katzav is meant to be handed down. Should the court find him not guilty all hell might break loose in Israel. It is literally the state prosecution that will have to face the court (of public opinion) for having "taken down" a president, who was ultimately found not guilty. Since there is already a sizable movement in Israel who believe that the state prosecution is politically motivated, should a verdict of not guilty be handed down, this would be a landmark case. Heads will certainly roll.

One of the interesting twists in this case, is that progressive women's rights groups might have been critical in achieving a "not guilty" verdict. When it seemed as if a plea bargain would be struck, they ran to the supreme court to block it. This move forced the prosecution to explain their reasoning for agreeing to a plea bargain by stating that they are not certain they could get a conviction. When the prosecution is on record as stating that they have doubts about their main witnesses in the case, it is hard to see how a judge can say that Katzav is a rapist beyond a reasonable doubt. This was literally a case where over eager zeal, forced the state prosecution to shoot itself in the foot. (Though to be fair no one could imagine that Katzav would back out of the plea bargain) 

What will happen if Katzav is found guilty? Sadly very little. The major papers will run with it for a day or two, but that will be it. In public opinion Katzav has been rendered a rapist for the last 4 years. The court decision will only confirm what everyone has already assumed to be true. 

For the sake of the public advancment I truly hope that Katzav is found not guilty (and not due to legal technicalities). As I stated – A verdict of guilty would lead to no soul searching – Katzav has been seen assumed guilty for years. However a verdict of not guilty might just be the catalyst for some real change, especially in the relationship between the court and the media. It might also finally allow a real discussion of the inherent problems of the defence in sexual harassment cases, without the cries of Political Correctness drowning out all voices of reason.   

Next Year's Wars

Foreign Policy has put up a list of the 16 possible conflicts for next year. We made it to conflict # 14 before Israel gets mentioned - as part of a possible war with Lebanon. 

In addition to Lebanon's internal political unraveling, the country risks sliding back into war with Israel. Nearly five years after the 2006 war, relations between the two countries are both exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous -- for the same reason: On both sides of Israel's northern border, the build-up in military forces and threats of an all-out war that would spare neither civilians nor civilian infrastructure, together with the worrisome prospect of its regionalization, have had a deterrent effect on all. Today, none of the parties can soberly contemplate the prospect of a conflict that would come at greater cost to themselves, be more difficult to contain, and be less predictable in outcome than anything they witnessed in the past.

But that is only the better half of the story. Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve. The deterrence regime has helped keep the peace, but the process it perpetuates -- mutually reinforcing military preparations, Hezbollah's growing and more sophisticated arsenal, escalating Israeli threats -- pulls in the opposite direction and could trigger the very result it has averted so far.

All things considered this seems quite optimistic. Only one conflict? No war with Iran? No war with Gaza or Syria?

More on Halachic Authority

In the comments section Rabbi Moshe Crisco responded to my post regarding the halachic hierarchy:

In this post (heading #5), Marc Shapiro discusses "Daas Torah" and makes a very similar point to R. Slifkin:

 

http://seforim.blogspot.com/se...

 

"Anyone who is honest will admit that the current practice of Daas Torah is completely phony. My proof of this is very simple. If tomorrow R. Elyashiv would declare that everyone has to say hallel on Yom ha-Atzmaut, would the Lithuanian yeshiva world listen to his Daas Torah? Of course not. They would simply replace him with another gadol whose Daas Torah is more palatable to them. In other words, the gadol only has Daas Torah because the masses, or the askanim, let him have it, and only when they like what he says. (I am curious. Has R. Elyashiv's ruling that fashionable sheitls are forbidden had any effect on his supposed followers?)."

 

As for R. Slifkin's point about Halachik Hierarchy, that can get tricky. We certainly do traditionally defer to early authorities, but at the same time there is a rule "Halacha Ke'Batrai". It's hard to know how to reconcile these contradictory traditions.

I've decided my response was worth making a new post (It's a slow news day):

I think that its fairly clear that the Halachic decision is meant to lie with the Rabbanim of your age - Even - and this is common, especially the bigger the black hat they wear - they tell you that left is right etc. What has changed over the last few years is that the Rabbanim no longer have to give a proper and intelligent accounting for their ps'aks. They can just pull out the "Da'at Torah" card and get out of jail free. We have moved from a system that is built around RATIONAL argument, to a system of authority revolving around personal "greatness".

 

What irks us common non semicha folk is that somehow "Da'at Torah" always corresponds exactly to their personal political/community viewpoint. Is life really so straightforward?

 

The Mathematics of Waiting In Line

Why is it the other line is always moving faster?