Skvering the circle: the oppression of women
1. Treating women as unpaid domestic slaves who should be neither seen nor heard is no part of Judaism. It is, however, engrained in the community, being one of the less pleasant habits that we picked up from our various host-cultures over the years; and because it is peculiarly convenient for many of those who shape the nature of religious life it is a habit that we appear reluctant to abandon.
2. The latest of a stream of Chassidishe Rebbeim is in London – the Skverer Rebbe. Last night a massed gathering of all the primary school children in the area attended upon the Rebbe to receive his blessings – with the small and unimportant exception of those who happen to be female.
3. Only one school – the Independent Jewish Day School – has bothered to make arrangements for its girls also to attend upon the Rebbe, who is delighted to receive them.
4. Every other school is in essence giving its girls a clear message that they and their spiritual aspirations are insignificant: that they simply do not register on the scale of things that matter. This is not a matter of public ritual in which the performance of public parts is reserved to men, like it or not, as a matter of Jewish law. It is a question of remembering that the spiritual attainments of girls and women are as important as those of boys and men.
5. One of the few positive things about majority Western cultures today is that women are to a large degree emancipated. Our girls see this, and participate in it in their secular lives. If our religion does not reflect this and keep pace with it – enabling women to be as fulfilled and challenged in their spiritual lives as they are in their secular avocations – girls will vote with their feet and leave the community; and it will be our fault.
Beyond the fringe – Techeiles Tzitzit
1. The new-fangled fashion for blue-threaded tzitzit continues to attract new adherents, both here and in Israel.
2. There is no sign that the general feeling of the gedolei Yisroel is moving towards acceptance that the blue dye presently on sale is indeed the chilozon dye required for techeiles.
3. But there are certainly those who say that it is; and they are, of course, entitled to follow their opinion, or their rabbi’s.
4. But one thing strikes me as clearly wrong. I see many people wearing techeiles tzitzit on their tallis godol, but ordinary tzitzit on their tallis koton. Either the new dye is techeilesn or it is not. If I think it is, then I cannot perform the mitzvoh in any other way – so to wear a four-cornered garment (my tallis koton) without techeiles is to transgress a Biblical prohibition. If it is not techeiles, then to put it on the tzitzit of my tallis godol is to colour the tzitzit inappropriately (we use white not as an alternative colour but as the absence of colour, in default of techeiles).
5. Let people either wear or not wear the new dye; but each person should be consistent.
Praying together
1, Having just returned from Israel, I have to report that what I thought might be a short-lived nonsense is gathering momentum. On entering a shul too often you find most of the congregants praying towards the Aron HaKodesh, but a small number insisting on facing somewhere towards the corner, having calculated precisely the direction of Jerusalem.
2. This kind of holier-than-thou and holier-than-our-fathers attitude undermines the entire purpose of davening as a kehillo – unity. Instead of presenting a united front, gaining from each others’ strengths and compensating for each others’ weaknesses, we present ourselves like this to God as a divisive and divided rabble.
3. In each shul, the rabbi should decide in which direction to daven (almost certainly simply towards the Aron): and then everyone should do so. Anyone who feels too holy for the congregation, should go elsewhere.
Electronic Christmas Cards – Missing the Point
1. As an orthodox Jew it is always comforting to see that most religions get most things wrong in most of the same ways.
2. For the past few years on the Jewish festival of Purim the pleasing law of exchanging small edible gifts has been eroded by the advent of a crop of smug little cards, saying things along the lines of “We think there is too much waste involved in giving mishloach monos – so we have given charity on your behalf instead.”
3. It is wonderful to give charity. But it is not the point of Purim gifts. The point of them is to show that before tucking into my own delightful Purim meal I have thought about what my friends and family will have for theirs. I also have to think about those without enough to eat at all – and there is an entirely separate duty of giving money to charity on Purim itself. It is not about spending lots of money on food that will be wasted (so the Talmud states that in some cases exchanging meals is the best answer): but it is about thinking of my friends and translating my thoughts into actions that will enhance their pleasure and comfort.
4. Christmas cards used to have the same idea. As I wandered among my colleagues’ offices I would see piles of cards, showing that people were thinking of each other at this time of year and translating that into action: now I see far fewer – they have been largely replaced by smug little electronic messages which swamp the ether along the lines of “We are saving the planet by not sending out any Christmas cards this year”.
5. There is no point in having a planet at all if we are going to make it as miserable and devoid of comfort as possible. Christmas cards are important. They translate thoughts into action and show people with whom we may have little contact the rest of the year that they matter to us enough not merely to add them to a copy list of a row of smug electronic dots, but enough to take a card, find a picture they will appreciate, write a message that will brighten their day, and go along to the Post Office to send it.
6. Religions of the world: unite against the depersonalisation of human relationships!
Old rants online
Gut Voch to everyone.
I am pleased to inform you that we have discovered on an old computer some of the e-mails sent out during the first incarnation of this site. These are now being posted to this blog, backdated to the dates they first appeared (June to December 2005). We hope that some of you will find items you recognize from when they first appeared, and others of you will discover an extra wealth of past insights.
I am aware that many posts are missing. If you happen to have any of them languishing in your inbox, please consider forwarding them to us! Nothing is served by these thoughts gathering dust.
As these posts are being backdated, they may not appear under “Recent Posts,” so please use “Older Rants” or the search box to find them. There are plans to create an index page that will make it easier to find older posts.
In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for features to add, subjects for discussion or anything else, please do contact me or my father.
Yisroel Greenberg.
How can politicians regain public trust?
- Politicians from all parties have commented recently on what they see as an increasing problem of lack of trust on the part of the public in politics and politicians generally. While their perceived reasons vary, all point to the fact that the public feel that at some time and in some way they have been misled by politicians.
- When Joseph’s brothers told their father Jacob that Joseph was alive, his heart missed a beat because he didn’t believe them (Bereishis 45:26). But according to the rabbis Jacob had always known that Joseph was alive (Rashi on Bereishis 37:25): so why did he find it difficult when the brothers confirmed that Joseph was alive? The answer is simply this: the brothers had lied to Jacob – and when a confirmed liar tells me the truth, it is more likely to make me doubt the truth than to believe the liar. Because the brothers told him that Joseph was alive, for the first time Jacob wondered whether perhaps he was dead.
- So how did the brothers regain Jacob’s trust? The verse in Bereishis 45:26 says they adopted two strategies: (a) they made sure that they told Jacob everything that Joseph had said to them, irrespective of whether or not it reflected well on the brothers, and (b) they made sure that Jacob saw the solid evidence of Joseph’s health and influence, the gifts he had sent. Jacob was quickly satisfied.
- If politicians are right that there is a need to regain public trust, they can also adopt these two strategies. Actions speak louder than words, and the public only need to be shown unimpeachable, solid evidence of the performance of promises to regain trust very fast. And if people feel they are being told both the good and the bad, they will be prepared to believe both; if they feel they are being told only the good and not the bad, they will believe neither.
The end does not justify the means (2) – Charity gambling
- The son of the rabbi of my shul was hawking raffle tickets this morning to collect money for his school (a separatist institution – of which more another posting).
- In Jewish thought there are two kinds of objection to gambling. First, it is close to theft, because the fool who gambles does not really intend to part with his money – at the moment of placing the stake his imagination suspends his reason; if he knew for certain that he was going to lose the stake, he would not put it down. Secondly, money won by gambling is not money earned by contributing to the well-being of the world, but by preying parasitically on the dreams of the weak-minded.
- A 50p charity raffle ticket is not serious gambling, by either of these tests. The person giving the money is happy to see it go to a good cause, and is giving it out of charitable intent (or, possibly, embarassment – but we hope for the best).
- A £100 ticket for a chance to win a car, with the number of tickets advertised as inducement to rely on maximum chances of winning, is gambling pure and simple. Whether the money is being collected by a businessman or a charity, the process is contrary to Jewish law and the only difference is that the charity ought certainly to know better.
- Between the two extremes lies a vast grey area where it will be difficult or impossible for a charity to know for certain whether a fund-raising activity is contrary to Jewish law or not. But the charity can be sure of this: appeal to people’s worse instincts and you may gain more money, but it will be tainted money and will bring no simen brochoh (blessing); appeal to people’s best instincts and whatever you collect is a source of true blessing for the charity and for its donors.
The Jewish All-Blacks – double-sided tefilin straps
- Before the new fashion for double-sided tefilin straps (black on both sides) takes hold, it is important to try to squash it, on a number of grounds.
- First, these will certainly be more expensive than the single-sided straps. So this is just one more attempt to raise the stakes in the observance game, making it an increasing burden on those of limited income to feel that they are doing justice to their religious obligations and providing unnecessary extra opportunities for those who wish to play holier-than-thou games of one upmanship.
- The Torah was given on the smallest mountain – Mount Sinai – to teach a lesson: if we all set out to climb Everst, most of us will fail, and only one or two of the fittest will be able to dance around on the top looking down on the rest. But if we all set out to climb a small hill, we can all get there: some of us will need to help others, and we will proceed at different paces – but soon we will all be able to stand there together and draw on each others’ strengths and weaknesses in worshipping God as a united whole community. So we should always be suspicious of anything that purports to set the standards of religious observance in a way designed to exclude – or likely to have the effect of excluding – being beyond the easy reach of everyone who wishes to be part of the Jewish community.
- Secondly, since we have a principle of yeridas hadoros – that the further we get from Sinai the less our religious instincts are to be trusted – we should be suspicious of anything that implies that the religious observance of former generations was lacking. If a new technological development enables us to achieve standards not available to our fathers or grandfathers, we should welcome it as they would have. But our grandfathers had black ink – if they had wanted to colour both sides of the straps they would have done.
- Thirdly, it is a halachic requirement that the straps be straight at all times when I am wearing my tefilin. At present I can quickly see when they are crooked, because the raw leather shows: with two black sides it will be more difficult to notice.
- Devotion to mitzvos is the essence of our religion. Endlessly seeking to make religious life more difficult for ourselves and others is not. (Personal chumros – stringencies – that do not impinge upon others, directly or indirectly by making them feel inadequate, are a wholly different matter.)
I’m dreaming of a green Chanukah
- Certain environmentalists want us to curtail our chanukah observances to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. They have calculated an impressive environmental impact to be achieved by reducing our lighting by one candle each.
- Much of secular conservation theory is at variance with Jewish thought. In particular, the idea that human beings should restrict themselves to sustainable uses of the planet’s resources, so that we do nothing that would prevent the world from existing indefinitely, ignores the Jewish belief that the world is not intended to last for ever. The Talmud sees the world as intended as a relatively short-term project intended to last no more than a few millenia – different precise lengths according to different rabbinic opinions.
- But we share with environmentalists the idea that while the world exists we should use it sensibly. In particular, we have a number of environmental laws, such as, for example, town planning restrictions designed to prevent one interest group from polluting the environment for another.
- To reduce our chanukah lighting by one candle per night would make no sense halachically. But it might make halachic sense to go much further than that. While there are different opinions about the optimal number of lights to be lit, everyone agrees that just one light per person per night would satisfy the basic halachic requirement. The Jewish world has opted to exceed this, as a hiddur mitzvah – a beautification of the mitzvah. But it is no beautification to upset others or to add to their ecological difficulties.
- It may be that the chemical global effect of the Jewish community resolving to return to the basic requirement of one light per person per night would be minimal, or even nugatory, as a reduction of emissions. But the spiritual effect could be explosive. It could demonstrate a real concern for our fellow human beings, and a real desire to do whatever we can to show sensitivity and a desire to avoid causing offence or discomfort. As a practical exercise in loving our fellow human beings and showing respect for their concerns and desires, it could kindle an eternal spiritual light of which we could be truly proud.
The Sceptic Blog 