The Chief Rabbi, the Pope and the Soul of Europe
1. According to the Jewish Chronicle, in the Chief Rabbi’s lecture at the Pontifical Gregorian University he said: “When a civilisation loses its faith, it loses its future. When it recovers its faith, it recovers its future. For the sake of our children, and their children not yet born, we – Jews and Christians, side-by-side – must renew our faith and its prophetic voice. We must help Europe rediscover its soul.”
2. It strikes me that this is about as inappropriate a moment as one could find for it to be suggested that all that Europe needs to rediscover its soul is co-operation between the Catholic church and institutionalised Judaism.
3. Organised religion in general seems to be doing as much as any other force in today’s world to sow the seeds of dissension and violence. While the Catholic church has particularly acute present crises of conscience, all the major religions about which I know anything at all seem to be contributing more to the sum total of human misery than to the sum total of human happiness.
4. The Chief Rabbi is undoubtedly right that Europe – and not just Europe – is in moral crisis, and to describe that as needing to rediscover the soul is entirely apt. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages are desperately in need of moral direction and focus; and the lack of these is leaving a horrendous mark on the development of societies throughout the world.
5. But what these people need is not a new gang to belong to, or a new dogma to excuse intolerance and thuggery; rather they need help to rediscover the inherent appreciation of moral values that are the image of God in which we are all created. All religions worthy of the name – and many non-religious philosophies and approaches to life – are capable at a personal level of reigniting a human being’s spark of holiness; but organised religion, as distinct from personal religion, is as in need as anyone else of rediscovering its soul; and until it has healed itself it will not be ready to be part of the solution rather than an exacerbation of the problem.
Miracle-workers and money
1. The latest copy of the free London Jewish Advertiser – a useful advertisting magazine which I have always liked and admired because it has never pretended to carry any kind of substance other than advertising – contains an advertisement that one can only hope is simply a cruel and tasteless fraud.
2. The text of this full-page advertisement says as follows: “A G-d fearing man of great ability who lives in Israel, can heal people of cancer from one day to the next. He asks with every lashon of bakashah that women DO NOT contact him but a man should contact him or her behalf. Please speak only in Hebrew as the man doesn’t understand English at all. There are 2 things that need to be prepared: 1. To prepare a CT scan where there is a cancerous growth. 2. To phone the man abopve to arrange a mutual third party who you will agree to deposit an agreed amount of money, either at a Beis Din, Rav, lawyer etc., and to pay the agreed deposit to the third party. The man will then prepare a tikun and then to get a new CT scan from the hospital. If the illness has gone within 1 WEEK, then he will take the money as agreed from the third party. IF, HOWEVER, the illness has not gone then the man will not take any money at all!”
3. Hopefully, this is just a plain and simple fraud, in which case presumably someone will by now have arranged for the police in Israel to do the necessary.
4. But what was the Advertiser thinking of printing this stuff? The Advertiser is circulated to houses with mezuzot in orthodox Jewish areas, and is aimed at the orthodox Jewish community. Presumably, if someone wanted to insert an advert for pornography, the advertisement would be refused. Is there nobody capable of exercising enough editorial discretion to work out that this advertisement is either (a) a simple fraud, or (b) at the very least, every bit as tasteless as an advert for pornography?
5. Either this man has special powers or he doesn’t. If he doesn’t, the advertisement is a crude attempt to extort money from the vulnerable. If he does, the advertisment is a crude assertion that these powers are to be made available only in return for payment, which is contrary to every notion of orthodox Judaism as I understand it.
6. What troubles me is that this is by far the first – although certainly the crudest and most tasteless – emergence of attempts to exploit religious credulity within the orthodox community. The number of glossy brochures for orthodox charities which now openly promise “yeshuos” – salvations – and publicise past miracles received by donors, seems to increase all the time. And several miracle workers – blatantly advertised as such – have been brought to the country and publicised in straightforward marketing exercises.
7. So it is time for the Jewish community to reassert that we are a community united by religion, not by superstitution, and that we are not all entirely stupid.
8. The power of prayer and blessing is an intense and real part of the Jewish religion – but it has never meant miracles to order, and those whose prayers and blessings are genuine, and therefore will sometimes be efficaceous, bestow them in a selfless and altruistic manner, without thought of payment whether on a conditional basis as suggested by this advertisement or otherwise.
9. An advertisement proclaiming powers to control divine intervention and offering to exercise them in return for payment is such a shameless parody of the concepts of blessing and prayer that the editors of the Advertiser should have seen from a mile off that to include it in their magazine would have been to subject their readers to gross offense.
10. Hopefully the next issue will carry an unequivocal apology.
Beit Shemesh Beastliness: Two Questions and an early New Year’s Resolution
1. Watching YouTube clips of so-called chareidim lining up in the last few weeks and days to bellow bestially at young girls going to and from school – in protest at their holy neighbourhood (which the school isn’t in) being sullied by the immodesty of short socks for five-year olds, has made me ask myself two questions and form an early pre-Rosh Hashanah resolution.
2. Question No. 1: How can these people seriously think that behaving like this is consistent with adherence to anything worth calling a religion?
3. Question No.2: If these men are meant to be chasidim, where are their Rebbeim, why don’t they know what their followers are up to, and if they do know it why don’t they or can’t they stop it?
4. New Year’s Resolution: Bli neder, I do not intend to give a single penny to any individual or organisation who asks for charity unless and until they sign the following declaration with which I will present them: “I unequivocally condem the behaviour of those so-called chareidim who bellow bestially at the schoolgirls of Orot, Beit Shemesh on their way to and from school; I acknowledge that this behaviour demonstrates apalling moral delinquency and utter spiritual bankruptcy; and I encourage this declaration, with my signature, to be brought to the attention of those gedolei Torah who are meant to be the leaders of these disgusting animals.” Those seeking a donation will have to sign the declaration and append their names, addresses and sectarian affiliation.
Yeshivah Inspections – Points of View
1. Last week’s Hamodiah carries an indignant out-pouring about the enormities inflicted on the yeshivah world by two Government inspectors who arrived in the middle of a rosh yeshivah’s shiur and attempted to insist on verifying the students at once without waiting for the end of the shiur. They were ejected by zealous students, the rosh yeshivah complained to the Government, and at least one meeting was organised at which the yeshivah world erupted into a self-righteous hysterical frenzy of scandalised victim-hood.
2. The Torah-true response to the incident would, of course, have been upon the following lines.
3. “What a disgrace it is for the Torah world that by the crooked behaviour of a number of so-called yeshivahs in claiming Government grants for non-existent students the Government has entirely reasonably found it necessary to inflict upon us the shame of having our claims verified by inspection of attendances; what a lesson this humiliation should be for us that by purporting to be orthodox and learned Jews our behavour should be beyond reproach or we heap insults on the Torah itself; let us at least try to restore our self-respect as a community, and a perception of decency in the eyes of others, by cooperating with the inspectors in a humble and helpful fashion; and, in particular, let us not waste even more of the public money by keeping the inspectors waiting just because we happen to be in the middle of learning – learning can wait, but reestablishing the honour of the yeshivah community cannot.”
4. Simples?
Messiah Delayed – Moschiach Can’t Get Through
1. When the Rabbis wrote, basing themselves on the verse in Psalms 95 “… today if you would listen to his voice”, that the Messiah sets out every day to travel on his donkey to the Western Wall they were, of course, speaking allegorically. Nowadays he goes by bus.
2. He starts every day at the bus-stop just outside one of the non-religious kibbutzim in the North of Israel. He waits patiently among a crowd of Israeli youths who stand around talking and joking with each other. Many of them are smoking, none of them is dressed particularly modestly, and the nature of their language is not always of the cleanest. “But, after all”, thinks Moschiach, “they don’t know any better – they come from a non-religious culture, and if they’re no better than any other group of humans at least they’re no worse.” He struggles onto the bus trying not to feel too disheartened, and stands because the seats are all taken: then one of the girls notices an elderly man or woman standing and abruptly motions one of her companions to make way. Moschiach sits down feeling slightly reassured.
3. Moschiach changes buses at the central bus station in Tel Aviv. He waits among a crowd of businessmen and businesswomen on their way to Jerusalem for mid-morning meetings; some men wearing kippot and some not, some married women covering their hair and others not. They ignore each other and jabber into their mobiles or poke away at little keyboards. When the bus comes they all shove on treating each other with entirely passive hostility. “But, after all,” thinks Moschiach, “they’re busy, thinking about making money to look after their families, and if they’re no better than any other group of humans at least they’re no worse.” Then one of the businesswomen happens to glance up and see an elderly woman or man standing, and abruptly motions a businessman she’s never met to make way. Moschiach sits down feeling distinctly hopeful.
4. Moschiach changes buses again at the central bus station in Jerusalem. He waits among a crowd of soldiers going to the Old City. They stand around smoking and talking morosely. When the bus comes they use their kit-bags as battering rams to make their way through the crowds and fling themselves down in the seats, eyeing the other passengers struggling on after them with disinterest or mild animosity. “But, after all,” thinks Moschiach, “they’re nervous and preoccupied, and they’re little more than children with adult responsibilities thrust on them, and if they’re no better than any other crowd of soldiers at least they’re no worse.” Then one of them sees an elderly man or woman crushed against the mountain of kit-bags and without much grace gets up and motions at his seat. Moschiach sits down feeling rather excited.
5. The final change of bus is in Meah Shearim, just outside the Toldos Aharon courtyard. Moschiach looks around: the placards on the wall proclaim that only the modestly dressed may walk through this holy neighbourhood; everywhere the signs of Torah learning and Torah observance meet the eye; shops piled high with holy books, men and boys on their way to or from learning sessions talking animatedly of their studies, women shepherding their young families along the narrow pavements; walls placarded with pronouncements of the great rabbis of the generation; the air buzzes with the “chareidi” Torah atmosphere. Moschiach is elated.
6. Then the bus comes. The crowd of chareidim charge at it without a thought for who came before or after whom. Men push women aside with unthinking violence. The elderly are shoved away unless they show an aggression that ill befits their years. Children are separated from their parents and dragged or pushed back impatiently. The rabbi who was preaching kindness and the unity of the Jewish nation just a few minutes ago is squeezing himself into the front of the queue although he only just got there. Moschiach sighs, and turns away. As the bus pulls out the rabbi thinks he saw an elderly woman standing on the pavement: he looks back, but he was mistaken – there is nobody there.
Australia’s “Biblical” Floods
1. Australian politicians have been describing Queensland’s floods as being of “Biblical” proportions.
2. With the size of area that has been devastated, there will certainly be hundreds or thousands of people who look around and see their entire world as having been swept away in the floods, and it is only to be expected that they may equate today’s floods with the Biblical flood with which God destroyed the world.
3. Of course, that episode ends with God’s promise not to destroy the world again by flood, and there may be many people today who regard that promise as having been broken by recent events. The same would have been true of many victims of the Pakistan floods last year.
4. There is a simple answer to accusations that God’s promise has been broken: the promise was only not to destroy the whole world, and there was no promise not to destroy part of it.
5. That answer is as unsatisfactory as it is simple: if my entire village, every town I ever visited and all or most of my family have been destroyed by flood, how impressed am I going to be by being told that God’s promise is kept because Hendon is still okay?
6. It reminds me of Cecilia Jupe’s answer to the schoolmaster in Hard Times, that if one sailor in a hundred is drowned at sea the percentage of losses is 100%, if you happen to be that sailor’s mother.
7. To put it another way, why should it matter to an Australian or Pakistani flood victim whether or not Hendon is still unaffected by the flood?
8. And the answer to that, of course, is that it depends on how the inhabitants of Hendon behave towards the flood.
9. If we simply ignore it, or get a transient thrill out of watching it on the television or computer, then our survivial is irrelevant to the victims, and so far as they are concerned God’s promise not to destroy the world has been broken for all practical purposes.
10. But if we exert ourselves to reach out to victims of the floods, in all the various ways open to us in today’s shrinking world, then they can suddenly see the point of the promise that natural disasters will always leave some people in a position to help the victims. God’s promise is meaningful only if we supply the meaning by committing ourselves to exert ourselves. The rainbow that symbolises God’s promise not to renew the Biblical flood arches through the sky, and I cannot see for certain where it begins and ends – but that doesn’t stop me from setting off in the direction it shows to look for people who might need my help.
11. We do not understand how or why natural disasters occur. But we can understand that they are challenges and opportunities to assert universal brotherhood.
The Pope and Good Manners
1. Scottish atheists are welcoming the Pope with a special “Good Without God” protest.
2. I know of no religion (including Judaism) that denies the ability to be a good person without religious belief.
3. The more important question, however, seems to be whether people, religious or not, can bring themselves to behave decently nowadays, by the exertion of a modicum of commonsense and self-control.
4. The journalists who managed to catch a photograph of the Pope with his face covered by his own shawl in the wind doubtless thought “what a scoop”; that is a reasonable first thought – but the second thought should have been “come to think of it, though, not very kind to publish such an indiginified picture – let’s just quietly bin it”.
5. Similarly, whether or not atheists are right, might not sheer good manners lead one to think that a billboard denying God is an impolite welcome to Scotland?
6. And the Cardinal expressing trenchant views about secularism in Britain may or may not have been airing an important issue, but simple good manners might have suggested that this was not the time, place or manner in which to do it.
7. Perhaps we are all so busy nowadays being right, and fervent in our protestations of how right we are, that we forget to be well-mannered.
8. I don’t know who first said “manners maketh man”, but it has something to be said for it: manners are more than a superficial social etiquette – they are part of our instinctive knowledge of what is good and bad behaviour that forms part of the Divine image in which some of us believe we were created.
9. The Pope has plenty of policy and religious issues to address (and so far as I can see he does not seem to be an unhelpfully complacent or self-satisfied personality): but there is a time and a place for everything – he is the head of a religion to which a few million of our fellow human-beings belong, and we owe it to ourselves to give him a welcome that exudes human warmth and a respect for human dignity.
The Psychic Octopus and Torah Codes
1. So Paul the psychic octopus has done it again, correctly predicting Germany’s defeat by Spain in the World Cup. Which means, of course, that Paul is a genuinely intelligent and prescient being who is capable of guiding humanity by accurately predicting the future in various ways and doubtless offering all kinds of spiritual and intellectual advice and support.
2. Or, if you have any sense, it serves as a reminder that given any two random series of numbers or other data there is a certain percentage chance of correlation and that, given an infinite number of possible combinations of series, it is unsurprising that from time to time we stumble across two series with no substantive connection that correlate randomly.
3. So back to the Torah codes. If by following the Fibonacci sequence and adding three each time and applying it to the text of the Torah I can produce the sentence “Israel will not succeed unless [insert your own favorite obsession here]” I have proven conclusively either that I am a gullible idiot with too much time on my hands or that I am an unscrupulous obsessive who hopes that other people are gullible idiots with too much time on their hands. I have not, however, proven anything else.
Rabbi Dovid Cooper o’h
1. Today sees the end of the shiva after the death last shabbos of Rabbi Dovid Cooper o’h, former Rav of North Hendon Adas Yisroel.
2. This week’s parashah is a double parashah: acharei mos-kedoshim. For most people, kedushah comes only “acharei mos” (sanctity comes only after death).
3. All of us who knew Rabbi Cooper z’l even very slightly were in no doubt that we stood in the presence of a rare example of a living kedushah, which constantly inspired us: we came away from talking to him with a wish to do better.
4. For much of his life his mind was of an extremely rare acuity: as his intellectual faculties diminished, the purity and elevation of his character were simply thrown into sharper relief. We saw that genius belongs to this world, but its application to learning for the sake of Heaven refines the soul to a degree that, again, inspired us all.
5. Above all, Rabbi Cooper z’l taught me the beauty of simplicity. Although his mind was capable of impressive feats of intellectual gymnastics, he did not indulge in rhetoric for its own sake, nor did he cultivate charisma. He said what had to be said in a straightforward way. He applied Torah rigidly, but his understanding of Torah included an appreciation of sensitivity and humanity. Honesty and yashrus (“we bend over backwards, but we don’t break”) are commodities of which the world stands in much need: may his memory inspire us all to do a little better.
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