Daily Archives: July 2, 2021

The Talmud says, Truth is the seal of the Holy One, blessed be He.

Rabbi Luzzatto (1707-1746) taught Truth is one of the very foundations upon which the world stands.

A civilized, moral society is in danger when lies become normal and truth is ignored.

God reminds us to be distant from falsehood because falsehood can shake the very foundations of the world.

We have all had times where we have been less than truthful, sometimes in order to protect anothers feelings, but often when we dont want to admit we have been wrong.

We teach our children they should always tell the truth and watch as they squirm when theyve been caught in a lie.

It can be harder to admit mistakes as we get older, but it becomes even more important because our very society may depend on our honesty.

Ive been thinking a lot lately about honesty and the character it takes to hold to the truth and point out falsehoods.

When people refuse to accept the truth, but continue to spread lies, our society is indeed at risk, especially when the lies can be spread without facts and with a simple keystroke.

It takes effort to discern the truth.

It is so much easier to just accept information that fits our worldview, or when we dont want to acknowledge that our own views are mistaken.

Sadly, in todays fractured world, those who speak the truth are now enduring threats of harm or even death, making integrity and strength of character even more crucial.

It is never easy to stand against those who wish us harm for simply speaking the truth.

The Torah repeatedly teaches the importance of honesty.

Rabbi Chaim Stern points out that it is essential in a civilized society for people to be able to live with a sense of security, knowing they will be treated fairly and honestly.

Someone with character does the right thing, no matter the consequences.

Character

Throughout history we have seen countless people who stood up against a wrong though it may have cost them friends, family, their job, their political office or even their lives.

A person with integrity does what is right, not what is safe or what will keep them in power.

A desire to obtain or stay in power can make people lose all sense of right and wrong.

Abraham Lincoln said it well: Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a mans character, give him power.

Avraham ibn Hadai, a Jewish 11th Century Spanish philosopher, physician and political figure, explained how insidious lies can be, and warned people of faith and integrity to avoid them: Prefer death to a lying word, for the ripple-effect of its plunder is worse.

Adolf Hitlers ominous words sound very familiar today: If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.

Faith

All faith traditions warn us to avoid lying or bearing false witness.

The Buddhist Eightfold Path and the 10 Commandments of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all stress the importance of honesty.

The Talmud teaches that truth is the very foundation of the world, and when falsehoods are spread, we are nudging at that foundation.

The commandment against bearing false witness is clear.

One scholars elaboration of this commandment says it forbids: Speaking unjustly against our neighbor, to the prejudice of his reputation, bearing false witness against him and in any way endeavoring to raise our own reputation upon the ruin of his.

We must be sure the words we speak about others are not an attempt to stay in power or enhance our own reputation by ruining theirs.

It would be prudent to listen to the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204): Let the truth and right by which you are apparently the loser be preferable to you to the falsehood and wrong by which you are apparently the gainer.

Let us be sure that what we say is not just something we heard that fits with what we already believe.

We must have the courage to stand up for truth, and we cannot remain silent when hatred and deceit are accepted as the lens through which we are told we must view the world.

We must be less concerned with winners and more with who has the honesty and integrity to always speak the truth.

The foundation of the world may depend on it.

Kein yehi ratzon may it be Gods will.

Shalom.

_________

Issues of Faith is a rotating column by five religious leaders on the North Olympic Peninsula. Suzanne DeBey is a lay leader of the Port Angeles Jewish community. Her email is [emailprotected]

See the article here:

ISSUES OF FAITH: Finding the courage to stand up for truth - Peninsula Daily News

Jews everywhere have long warned that the campaign to boycott, delegitimize, and ultimately destroy Israel is motivated by, and in turn feeds, hostility toward Jews. Such was the case during the most recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, which saw a 115 percent surge in antisemitic incidents, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

Those who actively oppose Israels right to exist play a clever rhetorical game to attempt to exonerate themselves from responsibility for this uptick: They point out that even Jews can be anti-Zionist, so how can opposition to Zionism be antisemitic? To equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, they conclude, allows Zionists to unfairly shield Israel from criticism.

To be clear, Zionism is not equivalent to support for Israeli government policy. It is the movement dedicated to establishing, and now maintaining, a Jewish national homeland in the Land of Israel. Zionism flows out of Judaisms most sacred and fundamental texts, beliefs, history, and practices, and is one of the primary ways in which contemporary Jewsboth in Israel and in the Diasporaexpress their Jewishness.

Meanwhile, anti-Zionism is not merely criticism of Israeli policy. At one level, it engages in a systematic falsification of thousands of years of Jewish history and the centrality of Israel to Judaism, thus robbing Jews of their identity and heritage. At another level, it promotes what would inevitably be a violent dissolution of the State of Israel, home to more than half of the worlds Jewish population.

And what of the claim that Jews cannot be antisemitic? Proponents of this argument likely have in mind groups like Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, two groups that are frequently tokenized to provide a Jewish veneerof respectability to anti-Israel rhetoric. Also consider New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who is Jewish, and whose own hostility toward Israel obfuscates the antisemitic nature of anti-Zionism. Last month she opined that attacks on Jews over Israel are a gift to the Right, demonstrating greater concern over political ground lost on the Left than with Jewish assault victims.

That these groups and individuals have a Jewish background makes their attempt to drive a wedge between Jews and Zionism all the more convincing. This smokescreen creates a false sense that Jewish opposition to Zionism cannot be antisemitic, when in fact it certainly can.

This smokescreen creates a false sense that Jewish opposition to Zionism cannot be antisemitic, when in fact it certainly can.

Viewpoints must be judged on their own merits, not on the identity of those espousing them. And according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances widely-adopted definition, antisemitism doesnt require a special animus or personal hostility towards Jews as Jews. Those who promote policies that endanger Jewish security or malign and delegitimize major components of Jewish identity are complicit in antisemitism, full stop.

This phenomenon of Jewish antisemitism is nothing new.

Throughout the Middle Ages, Jewish apostates spread lurid inside stories of Jewish blasphemy and perfidy against Christians, prompted anti-Jewish religious disputations such as the burning of the Talmud, and reinforced anti-Jewish claims of deicide and blood libels.

During the 19th century, Otto Weininger, an Austrian thinker of Jewish descent, wrote an antisemitic screed entitled Sex and Character that was later incorporated into Nazi propaganda and praised by Hitler.

A century later, the Jewish wing of the Soviet Communist party known as the Yevsektsiya was tasked with the destruction of traditional Jewish life, the Zionist movement, and Hebrew culture. These Jewish antisemites agitated to close down synagogues and Jewish cultural centers throughout the Soviet Union. For them, Zionism was counter-revolutionary and reactionary, harming the assimilation of Jews into the workers paradise.

Todays Jewish anti-Zionists are simply following the long tradition of Jewish antisemitism. Often from assimilated backgrounds at odds with the mainstream Jewish community, they gain in-crowd standing by reinforcing widespread anti-Jewish attitudes and repeating falsehoods such as the idea that Israel engages in apartheid, war crimes, and genocide.

The recent wave of anti-Jewish harassment and violence is the latest confirmation that the anti-Zionist movement is inextricably linked to hatred toward Jews. People of good faith must not allow themselves to be misled by those who use their Jewish identity to cover for their antisemitic ideologies.

Russell Shalev is editor-at-large of the Jaccuse Coalition for Justice and an attorney with the International Legal Forum.

Read more here:

Anti-Zionist Jews and Antisemitism - Jewish Journal

Four Orthodox Jewish school in Hackney have managed to fail a combined 29 of their last 30 Ofsted inspections.

Bnois Jerusalem Girls School, Wiznitz Cheder School, Talmud Torah Yetev Lev, and TTD Gur School are have all been rated as inadequate since at least 2014.

Each failed to meet independent school standards in monitoring inspections this year and all scored low for quality of leadership and spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils.

Wiznitz Cheder was savaged for weak implementation of health and safety policies, a refusal to teach pupils about same-sex orientation, and teaching that does not help pupils to make sufficient progress in the subjects they learn.

The report added: The current school building is not maintained to a high standard.

Inspectors at Bnois Jerusalem where pupils are not allowed to discuss same-sex relationships were banned from talking to students about anything but safeguarding, behaviour and bullying.

They also discovered a refusal to mention evolution in science classes, a limited PE curriculum, and a reluctance to introduce any recognised qualifications for pupils in Year 11.

The report concluded that pupils continue to be disadvantaged by having a limited choice for further and higher education.

Kids at Talmud Torah Yetev Lev were found to have poor English skills with inspectors claiming that a narrow curriculum and weak teaching meant that pupils continued to underachieve.

And TTD Gur was slammed for poorly-run secular classes where teachers werent properly trained to teach phonics.

Inspectors added that school leaders were unable to talk about the actions taken to address the unmet standards since the previous inspection as headteacher Rabbi Israel Najman was the only person who knew what was going on and he failed to turn up to the inspection.

The coronavirus outbreak meant that the Hackney Citizen was unable to print a monthly newspaper for three months.

We're grateful that we have since been able to resume printing. This would not have been possible without the generosity of our readers, whose donations kept the paper from disappearing completely at a distressing time for residents.

A huge thank you to everyone who gave their time and money to support us through the lockdown, and to those who continue to do so as we slowly recover from the dramatic fall in advertising revenues, on top of the existing challenges threatening the future of local journalism.

A one-off donation or a regular contribution from anyone who can afford it will help our small team keep the newspaper in print and the website running in the coming months and years.

Find out how you can donate.

Thank you for your support, and stay safe.

The Hackney Citizen team

See more here:

Four Orthodox schools in Hackney fail 29 of last 30 Ofsted visits between them - Hackney Citizen

Join Maayan for Rabbanit Gilla Rosens upcoming shiur-The Daughters of Zelofchad and the Development of HalachaRegister atwww.maayan.orgto get the Zoom link.This class is free! Sponsored by the Levisohn family.

Never miss the best stories and events! Get JewishBoston This Week.

Gilla Rosen is the dean emeritaof the Yakar Center for Tradition and Creativity. She has lectured at a number of institutions, including Yakar, Nishmat, Pardes, Lindenbaum and Hebrew University. She teaches Gemara, Midrash and Tefilla and serves as a Nishmat Halachic Advisor for women. Gilla is an engaging and multidimensional teacher, best known for her outstanding ability as a Talmud teacher.

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The Daughters of Zelofchad and the Development of Halacha - jewishboston.com

By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

Jewish people teach Jewish values to their children, and to all who wish to be informed about their faith. If one is asked Should I or should I not? we generally respond with clear and certain advice: Yes, you should if the value is a positive one, or No, you should not when the value in question demands inaction.

Strangely, however, there is one positive value in our religion to which we are not to respond Yes, go and do it. I speak of the value of zealotry.

Zealous acts are noble acts in our tradition. This is illustrated in the story begun in the last weeks Torah portion and concluded this week in the parsha named for the zealot Pinchas (Numbers 25:10-30:1).

Pinchas confronted a Jewish prince named Zimri in an act of idolatrous promiscuity with a Midianite woman named Kozbi. He took a spear in his hand and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her belly. For this he is commended by the Almighty Himself, who says, Pinchas was very zealous for My sake. Therefore I give unto him My covenant of peace. Because he was zealous for his G-d, and made atonement for the children of Israel.

Clearly, zealotry is a divinely approved positive value. Yet, I ask you, dear reader, suppose you had witnessed such an immoral and defiant act about to take place and would come to ask me, your rabbi, whether or not you should take up a spear and thrust it through the two sinners. Would I be permitted to encourage you to emulate Pinchas?

The Talmud, in a passage in Tractate Sanhedrin 82a, tells us that Moses himself was uncertain as to whether this act of taking human lives was permissible and Pinchas acted on his own. Indeed, the Talmud clearly states that if someone comes to inquire as to whether or not to commit such an act of extreme zealotry, he should not be instructed to do so. I, as a rabbi, would have to discourage you from taking up the spear and taking the lives of even the most blatant of sinners.

Yet, elsewhere in the Bible and in postbiblical writings, we find others besides Pinchas who performed similar acts of zealotry. One of them is the prophet Elijah whose story is read in other years in the haftarah for this weeks parsha (I Kings 18:46-19:21). Elijah, whom our sages equate with Pinchas, says of himself, I have been very zealous for the L-rd. The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant.

Yet another famous example is the High Priest Matityahu, whom we all recall from the story of Chanukah. Of him we read, Matityahu saw a Jewish man about to offer a sacrifice on an alien altar in the presence of the entire congregation, and he was zealous, and swiftly slaughtered the manand smashed the altar to bits; thereby, he was zealous on behalf of the Torah just as Pinchas had done to Zimri. (Maccabees I: 1:45-50)

What a paradox! Three great heroes of the Jewish people, all praised highly for their zealotry. And yet, if any of us today were to inquire of a Jewish rabbi of the highest rank, or of a Jewish court, as to whether he could emulate them and zealously harm a sinner, he would not receive permission to do so.

It is apparent that such acts of zealotry are limited to those whose motives are of the purest order, and who are moved by their sincere desires to restore the glory of G-d when it is publicly profaned. Zealotry is not for every man.

This is a timely lesson. There are many Jews today who are stirred by feelings of righteous indignation to protest actions and statements that, to them, seem blasphemous, immoral, or just plain wrong. But they dare not act, and certainly not act violently, against those actions or statements. They must first be certain that their motives are as pure and authentic as were the motives of Pinchas, Elijah, and Matityahu. And none among us can be so certain of our motives!

Our times call for a different approach entirely. Today, we must conform to an almost opposite Torah valuenamely, tolerance.

That tolerance is preferable to zealotry is a lesson found in the very text which tells of Pinchas zealotry. After he commits his violent act, the Almighty concludes His statement of approval with the gift of My covenant of peace. Many of our commentaries, notably that of the Netziv, emphasize that this covenant was given to Pinchas as a kind of corrective, as a way of demonstrating that, although zealotry is sometimes warranted, the ultimate Jewish value is peace.

For individuals who are sincerely motivated to be zealous, there is a helpful perspective that encourages us to find holiness buried within heresy, and sanctity somewhere in the midst of sin. When human faults can be seen as transient aberrations which cloud so much that is good and noble, zealotry fades into the background, and kindness and compassion prevail.

This perspective is expressed eloquently in the poetic words of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, in his brief collection, Midot HaRayah. I am indebted to my good friend, Yaakov Dovid Schulman, himself an eloquent and poetic soul, for providing me with a translation of this passage:

Tolerance:

When tolerance of points of view comes from a heart that is pure and cleansed of all evil, that tolerance is not liable to chill the flame of holy feelings containing simple faithwhich is the source of all life. Instead, that tolerance broadens and magnifies the foundation of heaven-directed fervor.

Tolerance is armed with a very great faith. Ultimately, it realizes the complete impossibility of a soul being emptied of all holy life. This is because the life of the living G-d fills all life. And so, even where actions come out in a destructive fashion, where points of view collide into heresy, there still must bein the midst of the heart, in the depth of the soulthe living light of hidden holiness. And this is apparent in the good aspects that we find in many corners, even on those ravaged avenues touched by heresy and corroded by doubt.

From the midst of this great, holy knowledge and faith comes tolerance, which encircles everything with a thread of kindness.

I will assemble Jacob, all of you! (Micah 2:12)

Words to remember, especially today.

See the original post here:

When zealotry tops tolerance as Jewish value - The Jewish Star

Demolition orders have been issued against several structures at the Meron holy site in the wake of the Meron disaster in April, and footage has emerged of work to execute those orders.These developments have given rise to concerns, among families of those who perished in the disaster, that the investigation to be carried out by a state commission of inquiry will be compromised by changing facts on the ground at the site.

On April 30, 45 men and boys, mostly ultra-Orthodox died in a mass crush on Mount Meron, the traditional site of the tomb of Talmudic sage Shimon Bar Yochai, where tens of thousands of pilgrims had gathered for the annual Lag Baomer celebrations.

Last month, the new government voted to establish a state commission of inquiry into the disaster, and the committee is now being established.

On Wednesday, however, images emerged of demolition notices posted at several structures at the Meron site issued by the Northern District branch of the Authority for Land Enforcement.

The orders were signed by the director of the Northern District David Ohayon, dated June 17, and posted at the site on June 20, the day the committee of enquiry was approved by the government. One of the demolition orders is against a 350 square meter raised balcony, and another against a pathway at the site.

Further images emerged on Wednesday in which large trucks and cranes can be seen at Meron, with workmen dismantling some structures, including bleachers in the so-called Boyan section of the site.

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According to the Finance Ministry, under whose auspices the Authority for Land Enforcement operates, four demolition orders were ordered by Ohayon against structures erected in recent months.

Asked about the images of some structures being dismantled, a ministry spokesperson said the ministry did not know what was being taken down in the picture, but repeated that none of the four demolition orders had yet been executed and needed the approval of the police.

It did not respond to a request for information as to which exact structures were under the demolition order.

A spokesman for the Forum of Families of Meron Victims said that the families were very concerned that the demolition orders were being carried out before the state committee of inquiry had a chance to visit and examine the site.

The spokesman said the families were concerned that the demolition orders were designed to cover up evidence regarding the causes behind the disaster and said the forum might appeal to the High Court of Justice to stop the demolitions.

Excerpt from:

How will demolition order for Meron affect investigation into disaster? - The Jerusalem Post