Category Archives: Talmud

Rebbi Meir said: Whoever occupies himself with the Torah for its own sake merits many things; not only that, but [the creation of] the whole world is worthwhile just for himAnd it magnifies him and exalts him over everything. (Avot 6:1)Whoever regularly occupies himself with the study of Torah is surely exalted. (6:2)Great is Torah for it grants life to those that practice it, in this world, and in the world to come. (6:7)

Tractate Avot originally consisted of five chapters. To accommodate the study of Pirkei Avot on the sixth Shabbat between Pesach and Shavuot, a sixth chapter was added to the Tractate. As that Shabbat (generally) falls out right before Shavuot, the sixth chapter helps us prepare for the chag by focusing on Torah learning. This perek is called Kinyan Torah because it refers to two aspects of Torah acquisition: how we acquire Torah, and the great value(s) we acquire along with it.

Grants Life

Torah learning benefits the learner in both this world and beyond. The seventh Mishnah formulates the point this way: Torah is great, for it grants life in this world and the next.

The Next World

Considering Torah learnings status as a central mitzvah, we easily understand how it earns one life in the next world. The tenth Mishnah tells of Rebbi Yosi Ben Kismas rejection of a substantial monetary offer aimed at convincing him to move to a city lacking a strong Torah presence. Rebbi Yosi explained his refusal with the fact that it is only (the reward for) Torah learning and good deeds (and not gold and silver) that we take with us to the next world. Many things seem valuable in this world. When choosing how to live our lives, we should focus on what has eternal value.

This World

The Mishnahs assertion that Torah learning grants life in this world as well is a greater chiddush. Rebbi Akiva reinforced this point in his response to those who questioned his teaching of Torah despite the Roman prohibition against doing so. Rebbi Akiva compared a Jews need for Torah learning to a fishs dependency on water (Talmud Bavli, Berachot 61b). Torah is not just an enhancer of life; it is a condition for it. Though many people physically survive without learning Torah, their lives lack true meaning.

Beyond meaningful life itself, the first Mishnah lists many additional benefits earned through Torah learning. Before listing these benefits, Rebbe Meir emphasizes that a person learning Torah also makes the existence of the entire world worthwhile.

Avot began with Shimon HaTzaddiks assertion that the world exists for the purpose of Torah learning (as well as avodah and gemilut chasadim). Rebbe Meir takes this notion a significant step further by portraying even a single persons Torah learning as making the whole world worthwhile!

The Greatest and Highest Life

The first Mishnah in our perek concludes its list of benefits by declaring that Torah learning makes one greater and higher than all creations (note that this Mishnah presents the elevation in relation to the rest of creation, while the second Mishnah describes the elevation as related to the person learning). Torah learning is great not just because it grants life (Mishnah seven), but also because it makes those who learn it greater.

The Gemara in Megilla (16b) further develops the greater aspect of Torah learning by asserting that it is greater than kibud av veim, building the Beit HaMikdash, and even saving a life. Though saving a life takes priority over Torah learning, the act of learning is of greater value because it helps people become greater.

As we saw, Mishnah Aleph describes Torah as raising the student above other creations. Mishnah Bet adds a second aspect by explaining that Torah learning elevates people (not just relative to other creatures, but also) to a higher (in fact the highest) version of themselves.

This second dimension is the backdrop to the way Rav Yosef reflected on his Torah learning. The Gemara (Talmud Bavli, Pesachim 68b; Rashi) tells us that when asked about his custom to celebrate Shavuot by eating a special meat sandwich, Rav Yosef explained that without Torah learning, he would have amounted to no more than the average Joe (Yosef).

Rashis formulation of Rav Yosefs words (if not for the days I learned Torah and elevated myself) links it to our Mishnahs focus on Torah as elevating. Though the mitzvot and good deeds we perform earn us reward, only Torah learning develops us in a way that elevates and distinguishes us.

To summarize, Avots sixth perek emphasizes the great significance of Torah learning, which grants life in both this world and the next and also helps one achieve greatness and reach the highest level of his potential.

May these mishnayot prepare us for Shavuot by helping us appreciate and properly celebrate Matan Torah and by inspiring us to maximize future Torah learning opportunities.

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Onward And Upward Through Learning Torah - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

To the editor Sincere thanks to the YH-R for courageously editorializing about the dangers of theocracies and then publishing a letter about abortion, noting not all people of faith believe the soul begins at conception.

Jewish rabbis disagree with Evangelicals and others who make the poetic praise of Psalm 139 (You knit me together in my mothers womb) into a proof-text for legislating when life begins.

Many Jewish scholars understand both the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud to teach the fetus is part of the mother until birth. The babys soul or spirit arrives only when the first breath is taken.

It should be deeply troubling to people of all faiths indeed, all Americans when one religious view seeks to become the law of the land, taking away from other people of faith the right to follow the teachings of their sacred texts.

Freedom of religion means nothing when one religion can impose its beliefs on society. When mere mortals attempt to enforce their theocratic beliefs on others, the result never proves to be righteous.

The result is, instead, sorrow and division. If history is any indication, theocracies tend to deteriorate into violence.

AARON COHEN

Yakima

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Letter: History shows us where theocracies lead | Opinion | yakimaherald.com - Yakima Herald-Republic

PARIS (JTA) In 2019, at a Jewish conference in Troyes, France, Myriam Ackermann-Sommer did something quietly historic: She read from the Torah in an Orthodox prayer group.

Ackermann-Sommer was in charge of facilitating the minyan or the 10-person Jewish prayer quorum, traditionally male-only at the cross-denominational conference, titled Do Women Have To Disobey To Be Leaders? and organized by Filles de Rachi, or Daughters of Rashi, a reference to the medieval French sage born Shlomo Yitzhaki. Troyes was his birthplace.

Theres a lot of questioning our motives in the Orthodox world, and elsewhere, like saying, Why do you do that? Is it just feminism? she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. No, I think its Judaism and its been there all along.

In the United States especially, the roles of women in Judaism have expanded in all denominations, including strictly gender-conscious Orthodoxy. In France, however, where Orthodoxy has long been the dominant Jewish denomination, there are only five female rabbis in a country with over half a million Jews.

The 2019 Daughters of Rashi conference was a call to action: Just after the conference that year, Pauline Bebe, the countrys first-ever female rabbi, opened up the countrys first Reform rabbinical school. Six of its eight current students are women.

A second edition of the conference imagined as a biannual event, but delayed due to COVID-19 took place last month in Rouen, the city in Normandy known for its medieval, Romanesque yeshiva (Europes oldest and discovered in the 1970s). Panelists took on an array of topics, from the COVID pandemic to the war in Ukraine to the role of France in Jewish history, and vice versa. Between 70 and 80 people attended, down from 200 in 2019 because of COVID precautions.

Conference-goers discussed topics that engage all French Jews, especially their sense of security in a country struggling with diversity and integration. I often think when youre Jewish in France, they always ask where you came from, said Manon Brissaud-Frenk, a student at Bebes Rabbinical School of Paris and a Daughters of Rashi co-president. And I always find it quite difficult because if I look at it personally, its been more than a century. Im French. Full stop.

But the conference also continued the theme of greater inclusion for women in the Jewish organizational and theological worlds. One well-known attendee was Reform Rabbi Delphine Horvilleur, who has gained international acclaim for her books and media presence.

The question of the advance of women in the political world is the opposite of the pawn in the game of chess: the right of women can go backwards, warned Horvilleur in her talk with Danielle Cohen-Levinas, a French philosopher and musicologist with a specialty in Jewish philosophy.

Also in attendance were figures from the Israelite Central Consistory of France, or Consistoire, created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1808. Many women hold leadership and teaching positions within the largely Orthodox body, which continues to play an important role in the direction of French Judaism, but it does not recognize women rabbis. Rosine Cohen, who has been teaching for years at the Consistorial Victoire synagogue in Paris, shared a workshop with Javier Leibiusky, who researches the immigration of Ladino, or Judeo-Spanish, from the East to Buenos Aires.

When I was young, we studied women in the Talmud, but it was never an issue, Cohen said during their talk.

Even if we dont have the same way of interpreting the text, even if we try to do it in a different way, with maybe different roles, there is no reason that in a society like France, women should find themselves at some point choosing between playing minor or major roles, no matter what space they are in, Brissaud-Frenk said.

The mix of topics, the array of religious denominations represented and the focus on women made for a historic combination in the eyes of Laura Hobson Faure, chair of the modern Jewish history department at the University of Paris Panthon-Sorbonne. She said that while these groups might come together at a rally for Israel, for example, gathering for an overtly religious event is rare.

Whats interesting is that usually Orthodoxy struggles with the notion of pluralism in Judaism, said Hobson Faure. The fact that women are creating this pluralistic space in France where the different tendencies of Judaism are represented is quite new.

Brissaud-Frenk was part of the board directors of the Maison Rachi, a cultural center that aims to preserve Rashis legacy. She was inspired by one of the lines in Rashis siddur, or prayer book, concerning the education of women: If she wants to, nothing can stop her.

The concept led to a discussion with Bebes husband, Rabbi Tom Cohen of the French-American liberal Kehilat Gesher synagogue in Paris. Brissaud-Frenk and Cohen decided to bring together female rabbis and Jewish scholars to exchange, study and learn and the conference was born.

Ive gone to way too many conferences where all the talking heads were male rabbis who talked about women and Judaism, said Cohen, who is a Daughters of Rashi honorary co-president. I thought that would be great because were now at this stage in the development that theres enough women who have come through the studies, universities, that we have scholars of high quality in all of the different [Jewish] movements.

The conference has inspired women outside of the more liberal movements too. Ackermann-Sommer, who also spoke at this years conference, is studying in New York City with two other French women at Yeshivat Maharat, which confers semicha ordination to Orthodox Jewish women.

Myriam Ackermann-Sommer speaks at the conference in the Synagogue of Rouen, May 23, 2022. (Filles de Rachi)

She is also pursuing a Ph.D. with a focus on Jewish-American literature, and her podcast Daf Yummy a play on Daf Yomi, the practice of studying a single page of the Babylonian Talmud per day compares Jewish teachings to classic literature and popular culture, from Platos Symposium to Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

With her husband mile Ackermann, she also runs a Modern Orthodox group called Ayeka, which promotes the democratization of Jewish study. One Ayeka program focuses on studying Jewish texts that are usually reserved for men. Its name, Kol-Elles, is more wordplay in this instance on the word kollel, the term for an institute of full-time, intensive Jewish study, using elle, the French female pronoun. So far, about 100 Jewish women, ages 25 to 60, have taken part in the program.

Ackermann-Sommers end goal: to become Frances first female leader of a Modern Orthodox synagogue.

I just think that male, bearded rabbis are simply not enough anymore, she said. It used to be the case that these were the types of figures that we wanted to look up to, for decades, for millennia, probably. But now we need women to represent women and to speak to women and to men as well.

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France has 500,000 Jews but only 5 women rabbis. A growing movement is pushing to change that. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

On Saturday, May 14, an 18-year-old gunman entered a supermarket in Buffalo and opened fire. In a matter of minutes, ten innocent people were dead and three more injured. Eleven of the victims were African American, deliberately targeted because of the colour of their skin. This, in itself, is horrific, but even a cursory look at this heinous hate crime reveals a deeply troubling motive that renders this impossibly immoral act even more evil and one that should concern us all.

Before perpetrating the attack and live streaming it on social media, the murderer published his manifesto, providing insight into the ideologies that animated his killing spree. He subscribed to the Great Replacement, a racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that claims that elites and Jews are engaged in a nefarious plot to replace white Americans with people of colour. It was the same egregious theory that, in 2018, motivated a gunman to walk into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and murder 11 people and leave another six wounded.

While what happened in Buffalo was, clearly, a racist crime targeting African Americans, the actions of the murderer were connected to a conspiracy theory that is antisemitic to its core. The horror in Buffalo serves as devastating proof that hatred of Jews has consequences well beyond the Jewish community.

As part of my duties as a rabbi, I counsel people considering converting to Judaism. I recently sat with a young man who came to see me. After listening to him recount the fascinating journey that brought him to my office, I was compelled by Jewish law to caution him. Paraphrasing the 5th century text of the Talmud, I asked, are you aware that not everyone loves us?

The longer directive in the Talmud instructs that the potential convert must be asked, are you not aware that at this time the Jewish people are despised and oppressed? Tellingly, whenever this quote was repeated in later texts and codified into Jewish Law, the phrase at this time continued to be included.

This is a sobering reminder of the persistent nature of the worlds oldest hatred.

In addition to Pittsburgh and Buffalo, on August 3, 2019, a racist murdered 21 at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where he targeted Latinos. His manifesto cited the same conspiracy theory. He also referenced the mosque shootings earlier that year in Christchurch, New Zealand. That killer targeted Muslims and killed 51 at two mosques. Again, his manifesto cited the evil, pernicious and debunked Great Replacement Theory.

Many were perplexed by the chant Jews will not replace us heard in Charlottesville. What was regular fare at neo-Nazi and white supremacist gatherings was, suddenly, thrust into the public consciousness. Unfortunately, it has only burgeoned since that notorious Unite the Right rally in August 2017.

In a sickening confluence of hate, the Buffalo murderer wrote Virginia Sorenson on his weapon. She was one of the victims of a car ramming attack during a 2021 Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin. White supremacists have characterized the six victims of that attack as exemplars of Black on White crime, and those victims have since become martyrs for the White supremacist cause. By inscribing her name on the gun, the Buffalo killer probably imagined himself as her avenger. The disturbing irony? The Black perpetrator of the Wisconsin assault also posted hate-filled antisemitic conspiracy theories.

More examples: On December 10, 2019, inspired by the sermons of Louis Farrakhan, two Black Nationalists opened fire on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, New Jersey, killing five. On May 22, 2021, diners at a kosher restaurant were violently assaulted by leftist extremists in Los Angeles. On January 15 of this year a man entered a synagogue in Colleyvillle, Texas, demanding the release of an al-Qaeda operative imprisoned nearby.

We do not need to enumerate all recent examples to spot the pattern of hate and murder. The hate was fomented online, spread by veteran haters to their fellow believers and to young adults they seek to recruit to do the killing for them. These young, mostly white males are susceptible to the conspiracies peddled not just in the dark corners of the virtual world but, increasingly, in relatively mainstream media.

The events are linked both by the murderers wholehearted embracing of the spurious but dangerous conspiracies and by their proud references to the heinous killers they are emulating. Like others before him, the Buffalo terrorists manifesto comprised whole paragraphs from the New Zealand murderers manifesto. And, like the New Zealander, the Buffalo terrorist went in prepared to share his hate in real time with the world online.

Its that hate, grounded in antisemitism, that repeatedly manifests as violence in the real world and destroys any lives in its path.

Rabbi Reuben Poupko is the rabbi of the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Montreal.

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Anti-Black Racism and The Great Replacement | OP / ED | thesuburban.com - The Suburban Newspaper

After years of social distancing and independent creation, the Urban Ecology Center will feature artwork created by Milwaukee artists throughout the pandemic.

Four local Jewish artists are hosting an exhibit at the Riverside Park location, open now through July 31, 2022, titled Four The First Time, with the underlying themes of nature and abstract expressionism. This exhibit marks the first time these artists are collaborating to create an immersive experience for visitors.

Bev Richey, one of those artists, is a New Haven native with a strong background in psychology and art. When she settled in Milwaukee as an adult, she acclimated to the Milwaukee art scene by getting involved in the Jewish Artists Lab, of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center. The program put Jewish artists together regionally to create an exhibition after a 10-month learning experience.

Richey creates abstract expressionist paintings based on what it means to live as a liberated human being.

In Judaism, the task, like in most spiritual situations, is ultimately to liberate the soul, Richey said. If you take apart the Passover story, its about developing relationships with a liberated self.

At the exhibition, Richey will feature a series based on the COVID-19 pandemic. In the true form of an abstract expressionist, she does not have a premeditated design or title and will step up to the canvas and let the painting come out.

At the beginning of the pandemic, we had no idea what was going on and things were falling apart, Richey said. If you look at the piece, I am squeezing paint out of a tube, almost like I am patching the world back together, similar to the repair side of Judaism.

Miriam Sushman specializes in stained glass mosaics and was the initial organizer of the group. Her artwork is inspired by nature, and she did a series on houseplants and Wisconsin birds for the exhibition.

Theres a lot in the Talmud concerning Jewish law about how to handle land with respect to the land, but also the effects nature has on people, Sushman said. Thats how I incorporate Jewish values into my art.

Although she had always been active as an artist, she discovered her passion for mosaics when she moved to Wisconsin in the early 2000s. Since then, she has been teaching others at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts, the senior living community Saint Johns On The Lake and the Grand Avenue Club.

The Grand Avenue Club is a resource center for people who experience mental illness, Sushman said. I taught members how to create a mosaic through a community mural featuring fish from Lake Michigan.

At the exhibit, Sushman is excited to share her artwork not just on the walls, but also interactive on the ground with her stepping stones.

Its at the Urban Ecology Center, which tries to bring nature education to children and adults in Milwaukee, so the stepping stones are a perfect match, even though usually in an exhibit art goes on the walls, Sushman said.

The other artists include Adria Rose, whose artwork is also inspired by nature and uses mixed media and watercolor to create fine art. Jonathan Ellis is a visual artist who develops a contemporary style rooted in truth, love, humor and theory.

The pandemic was really isolating, and as artists, we spend a lot of time working alone anyway, Sushman said. Human nature and human connection, those are the most important aspects of our work, Richey added.

* * *

How to go

What: Four The First Time, with art by Jonathan Ellis, Beverly Richey, Miriam Sushman and Adria Willenson.

Where: Urban Ecology Center, Riverside Park location, 1500 E. Park Place,Milwaukee

Contact: 414-964-8505, UrbanEcologyCenter.org

Related

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Pandemic art and more local Jewish artists featured at Urban Ecology Center exhibition - The Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle

While we strongly support and applaud the current community-wide efforts to encourage thousands of our co-religionists to sign petitions calling for a reversal of the proposed NYS Department of Education regulations prescribing yeshiva curriculums, we also cannot fail to note with sadness that we have yet to take a page from the very successful advocacy book of some of our fellow minorities. Black Americans have scored big time by coming out en masse in public places urging this or that result.

To be sure some of their demonstrations have unfortunately been marked by violence. One does not have to agree with the merits of their positions to acknowledge that they have made it perfectly clear that they understand the symbiotic dynamic between the street and politics and are not at all shy about exploiting it.

What makes this very frustrating is that what New York State is about to do to us directly impacts our fundamental duty to perpetuate our faith in the time-honored way we teach it to our children that Torah study is central. The proposed regulations would require our yeshivas to provide instruction that is substantially equivalent to what is offered in the public schools. Yet this would not only necessitate a curtailment in the time available for religious studies but would also authorize the imposition of the anti-Torah woke agenda that is causing such havoc in the public schools across America.

Moreover, there is a decided lack of appreciation of the educational value of the study of Jewish texts such as the Talmud and the commentaries in terms of reading comprehension and analytical skills and so much more.

When government tampers with our ability to transmit our faith, they challenge our essence as a people. Maybe we should consider making our views more loudly and clearly in person and at the ballot box.

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Take The NYS Dept. Of Ed Fight To The Streets - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

They do not merit fame only infamy.

Grief, despair, anguish all of these words express, in the limited way words can convey heartbreaking pain, our response to the horror of this past weeks murderous rampage in the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers.

In the aftermath of the Columbine massacre, a few months after teen shooters brutally murdered 12 of her classmates as well as her father who tried to intervene and save intended victims, Coni Sanders was standing in line at a supermarket with her young daughter when they came face-to-face with a shocking magazine cover. It prominently pictured the two gunmen responsible for one of the deadliest school shootings in American history. Coni realized that very few people know anything about her father who had saved countless lives, whereas virtually everyone knew the names and the tiniest of details about the murderers.

What do the killers want above all? Money is not the greatest motivator. Above all it is fame and notoriety that are the primary goals of those who commit the most horrific crimes assured of the media spotlight for weeks, if not months and years.

Adam Lankford, a criminologist at the University of Alabama, who spent years studying the effects of media coverage on future shooters, concluded that in all probability the most powerful deterrent to copycat crimes is to ensure that the murderers never achieve the personal fame that served as primary psychological motive. A lot of these shooters want to be treated like celebrities. They want to be famous. So the key is not to give them that treatment.

A mere four days after the 2017 Las Vegas concert shooting, an event which remains the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history, Lankford publicly urged journalists to refrain from using shooters name, photos, or writing in exhaustive detail about his supposed motivations - ideas which could inspire others to justify similar actions.

James Alan Fox, the Lipman Family Professor of Criminology, Law, and Public Policy and former dean at Northeastern University, singles out over-the-top coverage that includes irrelevant details about the killers, such as their writings and their backgrounds, items not only irrelevant but which unfortunately and unnecessarily humanizes them. It grants them the gift of being perceived human when our efforts ought to concentrate on their inhumanity.

Many law enforcement agencies have adopted the lead of the Aurora Illinois police chief who spoke just once the name of the gunman who killed five coworkers and wounded five officers: I said his name one time for the media, and I will never let it cross my lips again, Chief Ziman wrote in a Facebook post.

It is an approach that I believe has a precedent in the Bible.

The Torah recognized the most appropriate punishment for ultimate evil: God will blot out his name from under heaven (Deuteronomy 29:20).

King Solomon put it this way in his book of Proverbs: The memory of the righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot (Proverbs 10:7).

Thankfully, the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Team, in collaboration with the FBI, developed the dont name them campaign to minimize and/or to totally avoid naming and describing individuals involved in mass shootings.

A name, according to the Talmud, is our most prized possession. The Hebrew word for name, shem, is represented by the two letters central to the word neshamah, soul. Those who, by their actions, destroy the sanctity of their souls no longer deserve the preservation of their names.

They do not merit fame only infamy.

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He Who Must Not Be Named: Responding to Mass Murders - aish.com - Aish

An inscription from about 1,800 years ago that was recently uncovered in a burial cave in Beit Shearim, northern Israel, reveals the name of the deceased and his identity: Yaakov the Convert.

The full inscription and the story of its discovery were presented at a joint conference of the University of Haifa and the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday only days ahead of the holiday of Shavuot which celebrates Ruth the Moabite, the classic convert to Judaism.

The inscription is from the Late Roman or Early Byzantine period, in which Christianity was becoming powerful, and yet we find evidence that there were still gentiles who chose to join the Jewish people, said Prof. Adi Erlich of the Zinman Institute of Archeology and the School of Archeology at the University of Haifa, who leads the excavations at Beit Shearim.

Beit Shearim in the Lower Galilee was a central Jewish settlement during the Mishnah and Talmud periods (second to fifth centuries CE). The most famous part of the settlement is its cemetery, the burial place of Rabbi Yehuda Hanasi who completed the writing of the Mishnah. The place is now a national park, and the cemetery was recognized as a World Heritage Site several years ago. It was excavated some eighty years ago and features many inscriptions that speak about the Jews who were buried there in several languages, most frequently in Greek, which was then the international language of the Mediterranean basin.

About a year ago, Jonathan Orlin, head of conservation in the north at the Nature and Parks Authority, accidentally discovered a new burial cave that had not been known until then. The cave led to additional caves that were connected by gaps that had been breached in the walls in ancient times.

Two inscriptions in Greek were discovered in the innermost room which had been in complete darkness. They were deciphered by Prof. Price. In the smaller inscription, painted in red on the wall near a burial lodge, the name Judah was written, denoting the owner of the tomb.

The larger inscription, written in red on a stone slab lying in a cave and leaning against the opening of the same alcove, included 8 lines with the words: Yaakov the Convert adjures those who will open this tomb that no one must open it. 60 years old.

The final three words were written in a different script and therefore the researchers believe it may have been written by a relative, after his death.

According to the researchers, this is not only the first inscription revealed in Beit Shearim in the last 65 years, but it is also the first that explicitly mentions that the deceased is a convert. They added that inscriptions attesting to the converts are not common, and of those revealed in the past, most were from the Second Temple period or the Early Roman periodwhen Judaism was the dominant identity in Judea.

The present find is one of the few mentioning a convert from the late Roman period, the researchers said.

Continued here:

Inscription in Beit Shearim Burial Cave Reveals the Deceased: Yaakov the Convert Who Warned Grave Robbers - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

By Rabbi Levi Greenberg

There is no purpose for me to describe what happened in Uvalde last week, nor how I feel about it, because you know that already. We mourn the victims and feel solidarity with their loved ones. At the same time, Id like to share some ideas Ive been thinking about in the wake of this man-made tragedy that may be helpful to others.

Judaism teaches that we must personally grow from everything we see or hear. This is impossibly difficult to do when what you are seeing and hearing is 21 precious, innocent souls being gunned down in an elementary school. It may even feel callous.

But human nature is to process everything we see and hear, even, or especially, in the aftermath of such an event as horrific as Uvalde. We may be doing it subconsciously, but we attempt to make sense of what were seeing.

For me, part of my instinctive reaction upon hearing about a mass shooting is to profile the perpetrator. I tell myself this was a person with whom I have no affiliation whatsoever. I try to console my insulted and grieved humanity by declaring that someone who would do this must have been insane. Either that or the embodiment of evil, probably not even human. How can it be explained any other way?

Then I catch myself. I remind myself that insanity is a poor excuse for evil and the perpetrator was, in fact, most definitely human. So what went wrong? How is it possible for someone to do such horrible things?

Jewish tradition maintains that every person is born with two competing inner forces. One is the instinctive, survival force that motivates me to care for myself and succeed in life. The other force drives me to find meaning and purpose; to achieve goals greater than myself and make a positive impact on society and the world around me.

Although one force is selfish and the other is selfless, both occupy my psyche and are constantly clashing. Every moral dilemma I face is the manifestation of these two inner forces pulling me in two opposite directions. I alone must choose which inclination to follow. I cannot be blamed for my own inner struggles, but I am certainly responsible for my choices.

Most of the time the greatest difficulty is not discerning right from wrong, but actually making the right choices. More often than not the right choices are the harder ones and I need to choose selflessness over selfishness; divine awareness over self absorption.

In Genesis, we learn how humanity started from one single person. The Talmud explains that G-d created one human being in the beginning to illustrate the preciousness of one single life and how important every individuals choices are.

The consequences of these choices are usually not earth shattering, but the possibility for these inner struggles to morph into serious crises with far reaching consequences is very real. The more I train myself to make the right choices in the small, routine types of struggles, the more prepared I am to make the right choices when life-shattering struggles hit hard.

A young man made a horribly selfish and evil choice last week, but I am neither judge nor jury. As a fellow human being I am left with the following questions: Am I making better choices in my personal struggles? Are my personal choices inspiring others to choose right over wrong and good over evil? Am I effectively educating my children to identify these struggles and to appreciate how relevant their choices are to G-d and society?

While public officials and policy makers must continue prosecuting those who commit crimes and urgently find better ways to stop crime in the first place, we must do the very real work around us. This means making the right choices in our own lives, and teaching this, by word and example, to our children and inspiring those around us.

It may feel small, but if each individual is an entire world, it can be the very thing that will ensure that something like Uvalde never takes place again.

Levi Greenberg is associate rabbi at Chabad Lubavitch in El Paso.

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Opinion: Uvalde reminds us to teach our children to make the right choices - El Paso Matters

By Sarah WapnerStraus Center

On Shabbat of April 29-30, the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates hosted a Scholar in Residence program featuring students from Yeshiva Universitys Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies for Women (GPATS). Over the course of the weekend, GPATS students shared words of Torah through various shiurim [lectures] for the community.

Ariella Etshalom, a Shana Aleph [first-year] GPATS student, gave a shiur [lecture] entitled Holier than Thou: Emulating the High Priest, examining the avodah [ritual activities] of the Kohen Gadol in the Beit HaMikdash on Yom Kippur and the contemporary lessons we can draw from it.

Leora Moskowitz, also in Shana Aleph, presented a shiur on Questions that Count: Interesting Shaylas about Sefirat Haomer. Her talk examined common halachic [Jewish law] issues that arise during sefira and how these questions shed light on this important period between Pesach and Shavuot. The Shabbat program concluded with Shana Bet [second-year] student Atara Kelmans shiur, a thorough review of rabbinic responsa on the Holocaust, entitled Establishment of Yom Hashoah: Halakhic Disputes on the Role of History.

Over Shabbat in Jamaica Estates, I enjoyed the opportunity to meet a new community and witness their dedication to communal Torah learning, said Kelman. I was inspired by how large and diverse the shiur audiences were and particularly enjoyed hearing personal insights that connected to our shiurim.

Nechama Price, director of GPATS and senior lecturer of Judaic studies, expects that the GPATS Scholar in Residence program at Young Israel of Jamaica Estates will serve as a model for other communities. We are so appreciative to Judy and Zev Berman and Young Israel of Jamaica Estates for hosting three of our GPATS students for a special weekend of talmud Torah, said Price. This program was developed through the long-standing relationship between GPATS and the Jamaica Estates community, and we look forward to developing deep partnerships with other congregations, thus enabling GPATS students to teach Torah across many communities.

These GPATS students shone a light on Talmudic and modern rabbinic sources, exemplifying the next generation of Limudei Kodesh [holy studies] educators, said Judy Berman, the organizer and sponsor of the program.

For more information about GPATS, visit the website and follow GPATS on Facebook. To learn more about the GPATS Placement Program and other opportunities to support GPATS students, contact Keren Simon at ksimon@yu.edu

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A Weekend of Learning and Inspiration with GPATS at the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates - Yeshiva University News - Yu News