The Halakhic Mind

Just the other day I finished climbing a literary mountain. After many failed attempts at reaching the summit, I finally finished The Halakhic Mind, by Rabbi Soloveitchik. I bought the book over two years ago and couldn’t get past the first five pages. It is technical and often tedious to get though, but the treasures found within make it worth the investment. In this book Rabbi Soloveitchik attempts to fit the halakhic perspective into its place in the world of science and philosophy.  I cannot hope to do any justice to his explanation, but what I can say is reading this book expanded my understanding of not just halakhic thinking but also scientific and philosophical methodologies and reasoning.

This is a book that I will carry with me for a long time. It’s a book that helped me understand my own fascination with the halakha which I simultaneously fight against and am drawn towards. I’ve learned that many observant folk are not bothered by modern, scholastic criticisms, however I am. For me it can be a struggle explaining this thing that is so important and real, yet is often so distant and mysterious.  For those like me the works of Rabbi Soloveitchik are critical to reconciling biblical Israel with the modern world and modern methodologies for classifying and recording our experiences in the world. Reading his words truly makes me appreciate my place in this world and that I am merely standing on the shoulders of giants.

In his own words:  

Halakhah is the act of seizing the objective flow and converting it into enduring and tangible magnitudes. It is the crystallization of the fleeting individual experience into fixed principals and universal norms. In short, Halakhah is the objectifying instrument of our religious consciousness, the form-principle of the transcendental act…Rabbinic legalism, is nothing but an exact method of objectification, the mode of our response to what supremely impresses us.  --Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, The Halakhic Mind, p.85                                                                                                                                                         

The Theological Roots of Reform Judaism’s Woes

I found this article in Forward. 

I thought that it brought up a fundamental issue with the broader idea's inherent in liberal, multiculturalistic philosophies in general i.e. to stand for 'everything' is to stand for nothing.' For me personally that idea was always troubling and it lead me down the path of a more fundamentalistic thinking. I used to think that fundamentalism was inherently bad, now I see things differently, fundamentalism is wrong only when it causes people to become hateful and bigoted towards those who are not identical to them, but adhering to more conservative ideology as Mr. Kaplan points out below can be a source for real comfort and can form stronger more tightly knit communities. In any event, food for thought. 

Enjoy

The root of the problem facing liberal Judaism is theological. The pluralistic theologies of Reform Judaism make it difficult to reach consensus on what we Reform Jews believe on any given issue. The liberal approach to observance makes it impossible to set and maintain high expectations in terms of communal participation… As members focus on what they want rather than what they can contribute, it becomes increasingly difficult to build committed religious communities…The sociologist Rodney Stark has popularized the thesis that religious groups need a strict theology in order to make serious demands on their adherents and that these demands, in turn, make a religion more compelling.

Since a liberal theology leads to an emphasis on the autonomy of the individual, personal choice is inevitably promoted at the expense of the authority of God. In the absence of a strong theological basis for making religious demands, the members lose interest and wander off.

One might think that most people would prefer a congregation that allows each member to find his or her own comfort level rather than one that requires all sorts of obligations, theological as well as ritualistic. That is not necessarily true.

Yes, many potential members are deterred by high upfront demands. But for those who join, the commitment is much greater. Since most of the members in a demanding congregation are deeply committed and religiously active, the collective religious experience is much more fulfilling.

As the Reform movement has increasingly emphasized religious autonomy and the importance of choosing what each person finds spiritually meaningful, it has become impossible to compel members to come to services regularly, study Torah seriously and contribute to the vibrant well-being of their congregation.

R. Dana Evan Kaplan

So, What Do You Say to Him?

From Gutman Locks, a most interesting man who once had a conversation with my own father at the Kotel...

Enjoy:

A non-Jewish man from Latin America came to the Kotel yesterday with his son. He told me that his wife was Jewish. I told the boy that since his mother was Jewish, he too was Jewish. And since he is a Jew, when he grew up, he had to marry only a Jewish girl. I explained how we are a people and not a religion, but he was so young that it did not seem to make an impression on him, especially since he loved his father, and his father was not Jewish.

I asked his father what the boy’s Hebrew name was. He had forgotten it. I told the father to be sure that the boy received Jewish education. “He has a beautiful heritage, and you do not want him to lose it,” I told him.
They walked away. A few minutes later they returned. He had asked his wife, and she told him that the boy’s Hebrew name was Zvi. I felt that I really didn’t get to the little boy, so I tried one last thing.

I said, “Zvi, be smart like your father, marry a Jewish girl!” He smiled broadly. I think I got him that time.

A paradox

"The Sephardic way is a paradox: to keep tradition but to stay open. The Torah is not there to put handcuffs on you. We try to find solutions. We put unity first… I was taught that Torah and tolerance go hand in hand."

Rabbi Chaim Amsellem, MK Shas

From, Rabbi Chaim Amsellem: Charedi Rebel , this quote represents one of the main reasons I'm so attracted to the Orthodox Sephardic communities, there’s an acceptance of the sanctity of the Torah and of the laws, but also enough openness to accept the frailty of the human condition, the frailty of all men. There’s a big difference between knowing there is an objective Truth, capital T, and thinking that anyone community is capable of living that truth one hundred percent.

To soon, to late

'To soon old, too late smart'

               Got this piece of advise from an older dude in shul the other day. We were talking about how with age comes experience and wisdom and he told me that for to many things in life we're to soon old and too late smart...Meaning to say that far to frequently we grow old before we grow wise and the bad or misguided decisions we make in our youth we are forced to live with for a long time and sometimes the wisdom we need to make the correct decisions comes long after the reverberations of those decisions are felt. A little somber, but he said it with an ironic smile that made me think that some of that wisdom he talked about might just have seeped in anyhow.

L'Shalom.

A talmid chacham

A talmid chacham is a Jew who lives with G-d and reflects G-d in all aspects of his life. For him, there is nothing other than G-d and His Torah and mitzvots. A talmid chacham is not measured by the number of pages of Gemara he has memorized. Neither is he measured by the number of hours per day that he devotes to learning. A talmid chacham is measured by his dedication to Torah learning…when I was about ten years old, my friend said something I’ll never forget. He told me that his little brother had come home from school after learning about how G-d had spoken to the Avot and the Nevi’im, and he had asked his mother, “Why doesn’t G-d speak to Daddy? He learns whenever he has time!” Their father worked in diamond polishing. He would go to work early in the morning and return late in the afternoon, but he learned at every opportunity. His little boy didn’t understand why G-d did not speak to Daddy too. This father represents what a talmid chacham is…It’s a matter of dedication.  R. Shimshon Dovid Pincus, Shabbat Kodesh, p.108-109

Told a little differently, I was once sitting at seder after a long day, my eyes were closing. I was drifting in and out when the Rabbi asked me a question. I mumbled something, sheepishly grinned and admitted that I hadn’t been paying attention, I was tired. He looked at me, smiled and told me a beautiful story.

He said, “I was once sitting in a class much like this, and in this class there was a man who would always be there, and he would always fall asleep. One day the Rabbi, asked him, ‘why do you always show up if you’re just going to fall asleep in my class,’ he replied, ‘Rabbi, I’m a working man, at the end of the day, I’m tired and all I really want to do is fall asleep in front of the television. But I know if I do that my kids will see it, and I don’t want them to see that, what I want them to see he me going to learn after I work so they will know that it’s important to me and so it should to be important to them.’ What you do matters.

Shavua Tov   

Multiculturalism and Moral Relativism

The first people to try multiculturalism, the Dutch, were also the first people to regret it. When asked what the difference was between tolerance and multiculturalism, they replied that tolerance ignores differences; multiculturalism makes an issue of them at every point… Multiculturalism is part of a wider phenomenon of moral relativism, a doctrine that became influential as a response to the Holocaust. It was argued that taking a stand on moral issues was a sign of an “authoritarian personality”. Moral judgment was seen as the first step down the road to fanaticism.

But moral relativism is the deathknell of a civilization. In a relativist culture, there is no moral consensus, only a clash of conflicting views in which the loudest voice wins. Multiculturalism, entered into for the noblest of reasons, has suffered from the law of unintended consequences. By dissolving national identity it makes it impossible for groups to integrate because there is nothing to integrate into, and forces them to find sources of pride elsewhere. Without shared values and a sense of collective identity, no society can sustain itself for long.

Chief Rabbi J. Sacks, ‘The Times’, February 2011

The salvation of man is through love and in love

The most important sphere of giving, however, is not that of material things, but lies in the specifically human realm. What does one person give to another? He gives of himself, of the most precious he has, he gives of his life. This does not necessarily mean that he sacrifices his life for the other- but that he gives him of that which is alive in him; he gives him of his joy, of his interest, of his understanding, of his knowledge, of his humor, of his sadness- of all expressions and manifestations of that which is alive in him. In thus giving of his life, he enriches the other person; he enhances the other's sense of aliveness by enhancing his own sense of aliveness. He does not give in order to receive; giving is in itself exquisite joy. But in giving he cannot help bringing something to life in the other person, and this which is brought to life reflects back to him; in truly giving, he cannot help receiving that which is given back to him. Giving implies to make the other person a giver also and they both share in the joy of what they have brought to life. In the act of giving something is born, and both persons involved are grateful for the life that is born for both of them. Specifically with regard to love this means: love is a power which produces love; impotence is the inability to produce love. - Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning

it is upon us to praise

Aleinu was the song that Yehoshua wrote down before conquering Eretz Yisrael, it is our battle cry and we sing this song of praise to god each day.
  
L'Shalom

The Essence

The essential teaching of Chassidus, from the Baal Shem Tov:

Be simple, be earnest, and spread that simplicity throughout everything you do. Simplicity is a receptacle for G-d's simple Oneness.

On the way

Re-reading, ‘The Way of Man’ 

Excerpts from Chapter V. Not to Be Preoccupied with Oneself

‘He who has done ill and talks about it and thinks about it all the time does not cast the base thing he did out of his thoughts, and whatever one thinks, therein one is, ones soul is wholly and utterly in what one thinks, and so he dwells in baseness. He will certainly not be able to turn, for his spirit will grow coarse and his heart stubborn, and in addition to this he may be overcome be gloom. What would you? Rake the mud this away, rake the mud that way – it will always be muck. Have I sinned, or have I not sinned – what does Heaven get out of it? In the time I am brooding over it I could be stringing pearls for the delight of Heaven. This is why it is written: “Depart from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good” – turn wholly away from evil, do not dwell upon it, and do good. You have done wrong?  Then counteract it by doing right.’ – Rabbi of Ger

Rabbi Mendel of Kotzk once said to his congregation, ‘what, after all, do I demand of you? Only three things: not to look furtively outside yourselves, not to look furtively upon others, and do not aim at yourselves’  That is to say: firstly, everyone should preserve and hallow his own soul in its own particularity and in its own place, and do not envy the particularity and place of others; secondly, everyone should respect the secret in the soul of his fellow-man, and not, with brazen curiosity, intrude upon it and take advantage of it; and thirdly, everyone, in his relationship to the world, should be careful not to set himself as his aim.  – Martin Buber