Category Archives: Talmud

(Maseches Berachos) by Rabbi Dr. Ethan Eisen (Kodesh Press, 2020)Reviewed by: Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein

This extremely enjoyable book offers about fourteen short essays on various ideas related to psychology and psychobiology. The author uses the mention of some of these ideas in Maseches Berachos to further expand on them and present his own novel interpretations. Throughout the book, traditional Jewish sources and academic/popular medical sources are used side-by-side to present new ways of looking at the various topics discussed. The author compares and contrasts how these two different types of sources address each given issue, and uses data from one corpus to fill in lacuna in the others. At the close of each chapter, Rabbi Dr. Eisen offers practical Lessons for Today that bring home the point of that chapter and tie it in to something more useful.

In his opening chapter, Eisen talks about how the rabbis preferred antidote to the pox of procrastination echoes the famous words of Nikes iconic slogan: Just do it. This simple, but effective advice encourages people to overcome their indolence and dithering, and puts an end to the use of delay tactics. Eisen further develops this idea by showing how the Halakhic principle of zerizim makdimim lmitzvos preempts mans dilly-dallying and allows a person the freedom to live a more productive and meaningful life. He also draws on various psychological studies to probe the cognitive and behavioral causes of procrastination.

In another chapter, Eisen discusses how consistent synagogue-attendance alleviates many of the problems associated with loneliness, and how studies even seem to support the Talmudic assertion that such regular attendance contributes to longevity. As Eisen so cleverly puts it, 80% of life is just showing up.

One of the most creative and powerful essays that Eisen presents discusses the so-called IKEA effect which asserts that people value things according to the amount of effort that they put in to achieving or building that thing. Eisen uses this idea to explain why the Talmud assumes that Chana was so intent on Eli sparing the life of her son Shmuel, when she could have just as easily allowed Eli to put Shmuel to death and prayed for her to be granted another son.

This reviewer was particularly interested in Eisens chapter on colors. He asks the age-old question of how a person can ever be certain that what he sees is the same thing that someone else sees. Color obviously has various Halachic ramifications, and the question of how different people might perceive the same color has implications for psychology, social studies, and even linguistics. This chapter uses the disagreement amongst Halachic authorities over how to exactly define the color of techeiles as a sort of case study to make generalizations into the question of color. [One opinion that the author omitted is that of Rabbi Yair Chaim Bachrach (16391702) who characterized the color of techeiles as purple.]

Another discussion related to psycholinguistics is the cultural phenomenon of giving people a few seconds to finalize their statements and decisions. For chess players, this leeway allows a person to retract his move until he lifts his fingers from the chess piece that he moved, and in Halacha, this leeway allows a person to delay the effects of his Halachic speech-acts until what we call toch kdai dibbur (roughly, the amount of time it takes to greet another person) has passed. This leeway is not to be taken for granted in all cultures, yet Eisen shows how it has some basis in the neurosciences.

Eisen also offers a few discussions that arent quite related to psychology, per se, but do touch on issues related to the human body. For example, he offers a chapter that discusses the physiological effects of shame and humiliation, which lead to both blushing and the paling of ones face. The rabbis, of course, refer to embarrassing another as whitening the face of ones fellow. Another chapter explores King Davids sleeping habits and considers the effects of a midnight candle on a persons circadian rhythm. While on the surface these types of discussions seem more related to physiology, their effects are also studied by research psychologists and applied by clinical psychologists.

What is arguably the most important chapter of this book is saved for last. In this last chapter, Eisen shows how the sensitivity to so-called microaggressions is not just a post-Modern oversensitivity, but has a basis in basic human decency. He demonstrates how the Torah and Talmud are sensitive to the plight of victims and the down-trodden, leading to the expectation that Jews be especially vigilant in avoiding even miniscule acts of aggression.

The matters discussed in this book are loosely arranged by their appearances in Maseches Berachos and this reviewer looks forward to seeing similar books by Rabbi Dr. Eisen on other parts of the Talmud. Rabbi Dr. Eisen is trained in both rabbinics and psychology, using his mastery of each to complement our knowledge of the other. With witty chapter titles and easy-to-read discussions, this book is truly delightful and informative.

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Talmud on the Mind: Exploring Chazal & Practical Psychology to Lead a Better Life - The Jewish Voice

On Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021, the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, along with the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) and supported by the Shevet Glaubach Center for Career Strategy and Professional Development, hosted the Jewish Education Night of Networking.

The event began with a welcome from Dr. Rona Novick, dean of Azrieli Graduate School, in which she addressed both the stresses for Jewish educators brought on by the pandemic as well as the strategies and innovations being developed to support them and their schools. Underscoring the role of spirituality, finding fun, being flexible and actions to make a difference, Dr. Novick reminded educators that in order to care for their students, they need resources. Just as the stewardess reminds you, in case of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, she noted, affix your oxygen mask before helping others: you need to find ways to take care of yourselves.

Attendees then had the opportunity to visit online presentations by the faculty of Azrieli, Revel and RIETS as well as by representatives of Jewish schools and educational organizations. These included included brief lectures on relevant topics and introductions to the work and culture of various Jewish day schools.

The discussions touched upon such topics as teaching the Holocaust, incorporating the teachings of Pirkei Avot [Ethics of the Fathers] to support social-emotional learning, the importance of Jewish philosophy, managing loss, how to give a model lesson and making Gemara [Talmud] relevant for students.

Presenters included Dr. Karen Shawn (associate professor of Jewish education at Azrieli), Dr. Shay Pilnik (director, Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies), Dr. Daniel Rynhold (dean, Revel Graduate School) Dr. Scott Goldberg (associate professor of education and psychology at Azrieli), and Rabbi David Block and Rabbi Ari Segal of Shalhevet High School in Los Angeles, California.

Over 35 schools and other chinuch-related [education] organizations shared the innovations taking place at their schools to engage educators for potential positions. They came from all around the country, including the Midwest (Farber Hebrew Day School of Southfield, Michigan), the Southeast (Margolin Hebrew Academy-Feinstone Yeshiva of the South in Memphis, Tennessee), the West coast (Yeshiva University High Schools of Los Angeles and Southern California Yeshiva High School) and the New York metropolitan area (SAR High School in Riverdale and Yeshivat Noam in Paramus, New Jersey).

Those who attended appreciated meeting with representatives from multiple schools and learning about the opportunities available in Jewish education. One Azrieli student who had never considered a job outside the New York metropolitan area said she so enjoyed her visit with representatives from the Addlestone Hebrew Academy of Charleston, South Carolina, that she envisioned taking a job there.

The success of the Night of Networking can be measured in the 150 people attending nearly 70 different presentations throughout the evening. In the coming weeks, the Shevet Glaubach Center will be sending the rsums of attendees to presenters so that people can build upon the connections made during the Night of Networking that will ultimately strengthen the field of Jewish education.

Excerpt from:

The Jewish Education Night of Networking Yeshiva University News - Yu News

Life lesson learned at Beth SamuelI live in Palo Alto now, but I used to live in Ambridge and I went to religious school at Beth Samuel Jewish Center until I was 15. Beth Samuel was a storefront synagogue to begin with. Its former location is now an Ambridge institution, the Maple Restaurant, known for its roast beef sandwich. What used to be the bimah is now the kitchen. When it became a restaurant instead of a synagogue, my father sent the owners, the Pappas family, a good luck horseshoe which is still there. I was about 12 when Beth Samuel moved into the new building at its current location.

My friend in Pittsburgh, one of the handful of girls that made up my entire religious school class, sent me the article from the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle via Facebook. I was so charmed by it, by Beth Samuels religious school still being a functioning institution. More than anything, I was charmed by the students repairing the world with animal treats. It was at Beth Samuel that I learned that Jews must care for animals, and anyone who has known me, knows that the dog eats before we sit down to dinner because the Torah and the Talmud say so. They shrug their shoulders with a there-goes-Natalie-again gesture, but I know I answer to a higher authority. I learned that at Beth Samuel.

Natalie Krauss BivasPalo Alto, California

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In remembrance of Rabbi Abraham Twerski In the early 1980s, I was a young lawyer when a young man charged with vehicular homicide while drunk was referred to me as a client.

The car exploded, incinerating his best friend and sister. As his charred body was inserted into a bag, his hand moved.

When I eventually met the client, he was virtually unrecognizable, given the burns he had suffered from careening into a telephone pole. After dozens of surgeries he was two-sided: One side of his body looked normal, with the other side resembling a skeleton, given the burns.

Given the circumstances, he faced a mandatory three-year jail sentence. No excuses. No exceptions. However, for him prison would be a death sentence. I simply dreaded his court date.

Someone recommended that I contact Rabbi Abraham Twerski. It was then that I learned of his approach and of his clinic, Gateway Rehabilitation Center.

Now, 40 years later, I explicitly remember my one telephone call with the rabbi. I was spent and nervous, but his simple response was: Well take care of him. I had a host of questions. The rabbis response was always, Well take care of him. He never asked for money. It was just that simple refrain.

In court, I argued that no jail could handle my client. When asked by the judge if there was any alternative, I mentioned Rabbi Twerski and Gateway Rehabilitation Center. My clients life was spared. Dr. Rabbi Abraham Twerski took good care of him and countless others.

Mark D. SchwartzBryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Nikki Haley let us downThere are two articles of importance in the Feb. 19 edition of the Chronicle for those of us who are fascinated with politics. The first is Nikki Haley broke with Trump. It could make her a Jewish GOP favorite in 2024. Ambassador Haley will get no support from me as she clearly positions herself to run for the Republican nomination in the next presidential election.

Haley supported Trump through one atrocity after another. She stood by him through the Nov. 3 election and she surely would have remained with him if he had won. Only now, with Trump out of the White House, has she purportedly changed her tune: He let us downhe went down a path he shouldnt have, and we shouldnt have listened to him. I did not ever listen to him or follow him down that path, Ambassador. Why did you?

In her moving opinion essay, A deep abiding thank you to Rep. Jamie Raskin, author Elinor S. Nathanson tells us why patriotic Americans did not follow Trump, his vicious lies, virulent hatred, white supremacist glorification and incitement of deadly violence. Why did the ambassador close her eyes to the many ways in which Trump sought to bring down our country and savage our ideals and values, all of the noble tenets that our country has represented and espoused throughout our history?

A newspaper article recently featured an interview with a professor who has specialized in the study of white supremacist groups. The piece featured a chilling photograph of hundreds of robed Ku Klux Klan members marching in Washington, D.C. in 1925. The professor noted the similarities between that movement and those of similar ilk who have rallied around the Trump presidency. He noted that bigotry is more accepted and out in the open today in significant part because of the tenor of the past four years. The haters no longer feel the need to shield their identities. It is a chilling phenomenon.

There is a level of hypocrisy in both major political parties and in every human being. I try to identify the worst of the hypocrites. Ambassador Nikki Haley is among them. She is the one who let us down because she knew better.

Oren SpieglerPeters Township

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Letters to the Editor | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

Thirty-two-year-old Jonah Sanderson describes himself like a bottle of his favorite single malt scotch. When you first put your nose to it, the smell is caramel, shoe leather and tar and you think, This is strange, who would drink this? But then you sip it and you get to love it. And thats who I am.

Those who have met the activist and Los Angeleno know Sanderson is strong-willed and determined. His father told him growing up that he could do anything he wanted in life, he would just have to work harder than the average person.

What people might not know about Sanderson is that he was born with intrauterine growth retardation syndrome. At nine years old he was diagnosed with a non-verbal learning disability, which means that the right side of my brain works differently and processes information differently than my left side of my brain. After going to the Los Angeles Regional Center as a child, Sanderson was misdiagnosed with mild mental retardation. For the next 13 years, he failed his classes, dropped out of school and wasnt able to fully come to terms with the repercussions of his misdiagnoses until he was 17.

Since disabilities are on a spectrum, Sanderson didnt fit neatly in any specific category. Not having the resources because institutions, educators and community leaders werent properly equipped, he wasnt sure where to turn.

Then at 22, he had an awakening. He decided to invest himself and his time learning about Judaism.

You dont have to have a high school education to be part of the Jewish people, Sanderson said. I looked every day for a year for a Jewish community that was welcoming and inclusive. I found my mentor and almost a second father to me, Rabbi Yitz Jacobs. He gave me self-confidence. He said to me, You can do anything you want to do. I see you no differently than I see anyone else.

You dont have to have a high school education to be part of the Jewish people.

Jacobs, who is a rabbi at Aish Los Angeles, took Sanderson under his wing and taught him about Torah, Talmud and Jewish rituals. With his help, Sanderson moved to Israel for two years, studied with Aish, made friends and lived on his own for the first time.

Jonah is so smart, he is so articulate. There are so many ways he can learn. We just had to work on who he was and how he learns, Jacobs told the Journal. Hes overcome so many challenges and used them as opportunities. Im so proud of him.

When he returned home, he came back and told his parents he not only wanted to finish school and graduate, but attend college and rabbinical school, no matter what it took.

In 2016 he graduated high school and in 2020 Sanderson graduated college with a BA in criminal justice. In May, he will be the first person with a non-verbal learning disability to receive a masters degree from the Academy for Jewish Religion California (AJRCA).

When Sanderson enrolled at AJRCA, he had come to terms with his disability, but wasnt very public about it. Though his mild disability wasnt visible, he went to speak with AJRCA President Rabbi Mel Gottlieb to create a plan for success, since the school never had a reason to modify programs for students with disabilities.

AJRCA did a mitzvah. They took somebody like me and they allowed me to become a Jewish leader and they let me grow my soul, he said. Because they took me, I managed to get three more people with differing disabilities through the door one with the same diagnoses as me and this person is becoming a chaplain.

Gottlieb said the school was open to adapting its curriculum to make it more inclusive. The whole experience was not only educational and impactful for Sanderson but also for the other rabbinical students, teachers and staff.

If we were to accept students with disabilities, we had to provide them with support and learn how to educate them in ways that would be user-friendly, without compromising the classroom situation and the expectations to pass the class, Gottlieb said. We used it as a challenge for our school to accept differences and to learn greater patienceThe term learning disability is broad. We have to educate ourselves that one way of learning doesnt fit for all If everyone works together in an understanding manner then progress is made.

Sanderson was now working with educators to create a plan specifically for him, instead of fitting into a category. Sanderson said while he holds a great deal of respect for the Jewish community, he struggled growing up to find mentors and spaces like AJRCA that were willing to help him succeed and not shut him out. He was kicked out of Jewish day schools, misdiagnosed by local institutions and felt alienated from his community, even when the intentions were meant to be helpful not harmful.

They might have good intentions, but more often than not these kids are charity cases, Sanderson said. You get volunteer hours and volunteer with kids who are atypical but then youre not friends with them outside of school. You dont see them in the community, it looks better for the other person. What rabbis need to do and what I hope to do when I get ordained, is to create communities where we are saying, We are going to be inclusive and no person is unlike any other person. That is what matters.

During his time at AJRCA, Sanderson has advocated for social justice causes that are important to him, including fighting for the LGBTQ community, the Black community, minorities and implementing suicide prevention and mental health services in the Jewish community. He has also chosen to add disability activist to his line of work.

When I came out about my story, several people let me know something similar happened to their child, Sanderson said.

On Feb. 21, Sanderson and Rabbi Cantor Cheri Weiss, founder of San Diego Outreach Synagogue, hosted a Zoom event that coincided with JDAIM: Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month. After hearing Sandersons story, she wanted him to speak with members of the Southern California Jewish community.

Jonah wanted to focus on the positive aspects of his story, which is in line with the positive way he approaches life in general, Weiss said. He focuses on what he can do rather than what he cannot. In turn, this inspires others who may be facing their own personal challenges. Belief in yourself is the first step to overcoming these challenges. Having people who believe in you is the other part of the equation. Jonah found both.

Weiss and Sanderson teamed up for the event because they both believe that the Jewish community is responsible for and benefits from welcoming and including people of all backgrounds. Weiss added, celebrating our diversity makes our Jewish community stronger and more vibrant.

One of the first people outside of his family Sanderson was able to open up to about his disability was Alisha Pedowitz, California director of Moving Traditions. After meeting at an event about consent following the #MeToo movement for the Jewish Federation, he approached Pedowitz with dozens of questions. Pedowitz, who identifies as a progressive, and Sanderson, who identifies as a George W. Bush Republican, didnt see eye to eye at first. Despite their differences, their friendship blossomed because of their ability to listen and learn from one another. This was especially the case during the 2020 presidential election.

Something I deeply love and appreciate about Jonah [is] when you have these conversations with him, he really listens and really thinks about it even if its counter to his own opinions and perspective, she said.

After discussing the election at length, Pedowitz helped Sanderson choose to vote for now-President Joe Biden. Pedowitz noted how life-changing it has been to witness Sanderson genuinely want to understand other perspectives and opinions, even though he has strong beliefs of his own. [He] genuinely changes the way he sees things following conversations, and takes ownership of that.

Alisha was one of the first people in the Jewish community when I came out [with his disability], to see me as an adult, as an equal, as a partner, Sanderson added. She taught me how to see the God in other people that were different from how I was and to be less black and white. The day I voted for Joe Biden was the best election day since I first voted at 18 and I have her to thank for it.

While he still has time before AJRCA graduation day, he is already thinking of the next steps and the kind of Jewish professional he wants to be. He sees himself becoming an egalitarian conservodox rabbi in the pulpit and doing a lot of outreach. That means continuing advocating for suicide prevention in the Jewish community, advocating for other minorities, confronting injustices and creating spaces where every Jewish person feels seen and respected. He will also do so while not letting his disability define him.

What happens when you talk about your own learning disability is that many people come out and understand your struggles and they identify with them too, he said. Within the last year, I have been vocal about it. Theres a saying from the Talmud which is, If Im not for myself who will be for me? And being only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? That saying is my life and I really never wanted to be a leader in this sense but then I thought, I can just be a leader in every sense.

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Jonah Sanderson Successfully Navigates His Disability, Aims to Make Jewish Community More Inclusive - Jewish Journal

It has been almost a year since the start of the pandemic, when life as we knew it came to a screeching halt. Now, vaccines are starting to be distributed, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet some Americans still refuse to get their COVID-19 vaccination for a number of reasons. For those who are uncertain about whether to get the vaccine, Judaism provides a useful guide.

The Torah is far too old a text for ideas such as a vaccine, but it still contains recommendations to deal with health problems and plagues. For example, Leviticus Chapter 13 talks about what a priest should do if someone has leprosy. It starts by saying that the infected person has to report to a priest if they get symptoms. If the priest ruled that the person was infected (based on the guidance that God gave Moses and Aaron), they would have to isolate themselves for seven days and then get reexamined by a priest to see whether they could be allowed back into the community.

Of course, parallels to the ongoing pandemic and quarantine procedures are apparent, but what do Jewish values say about vaccines?

To start, we have to understand one of the best known Jewish values: Love your neighbor as yourself. Simply put, in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you first need to love yourself. This type of thinking is the backbone to how Jewish scholars, and thus Judaism, approach ideas such as getting a vaccine.

In the Talmud, there is a story that is like a Jewish version of the trolley problem, a popular ethics scenario. In this biblical version, you and a stranger are walking on a desolate path that is far from any civilization. With you is a bottle of water that has enough water to allow only one person to make it to the nearest civilization. What should you do?

Throughout our lives, we have been taught that the moral thing to do would be to give the other person the water: to sacrifice yourself for the betterment of another person. Yet if both people act morally, no one will drink and both will die. This is not a favorable outcome, but in times that are less severe, acting selflessly for the betterment of other people is encouraged.

One instance is in the story of Mah Tovu where Balaam, who is sent to curse the Israelites, blesses them after being overcome with awe.

For a long time, there was only one acceptable opinion for how to handle the who should drink the water problem. This opinion came from the sage Ben Patura, who taught that both travelers should drink and die so that neither one of them is responsible for the other persons death.

This is contrasted with Rabbi Akivas commentary that you should put yourself in front of others when there are no other options. As previously mentioned, in order to love your neighbor as yourself, you first have to love yourself. So, the Jewish thing to do in the water scenario would be to drink the water yourself.

Of course there is a lot of controversy over an ethical scenario like this, but what do our values tell us about whether or not we should get a COVID-19 vaccine? Another teaching will help us navigate this decision.

In Shabbat 31a of the Talmud, a gentile will convert to Judaism if a rabbi can teach him the whole Torah while the gentile stands on one foot. When the gentile comes to Hillel, Hillel teaches the man, What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary. Go and study it!

When getting a vaccine, consider asking yourself whether this is good for your neighbor. If there is a line for a vaccine, going around that line, or cutting in, could hurt your neighbor if he or she was supposed to get vaccinated before you. However, when it is your turn to get vaccinated, you should do so because that helps the community.

Moreover, if an opportunity arises in which you can get vaccinated out of turn, and if you dont do so the vaccine would go to waste, then you should take it. By stepping up to make sure the vaccine doesnt go to waste, you help your community by not being wasteful and also by working toward the goal that everyone gets vaccinated.

Judaism promotes community. We need to have 10 people for a minyan, and we celebrate the holidays by gathering with our families. In order to ensure the longevity of these traditions, we need to make sure that we are safe while doing them. If you know that you are in the group that is able to get a vaccine according to your state or county guidelines, then, according to Jewish values, you should be signing up to get vaccinated because you need to be able to take care of yourself.

Furthermore, even once you get vaccinated, you still need to continue to take care of the rest of our community by limiting the spread of the virus. Based on Hillels teaching, we should still be careful when coming in contact with others. Even though you may be shielded from the effects of the virus because of your vaccination, your neighbors may not be. This is an example of helping others after you helped yourself.

No religion says to think solely about yourself. There is always a balance between the community and oneself. During this pandemic, the balance that was communal interconnectedness has been tested time and again. However, if everyone were to get the vaccine when it was made available to them, the community would be a better, healthier place, which, in the end, is all that really matters.

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Searching Jewish wisdom for guidance on vaccination | Ohr Chadash | stljewishlight.com - St. Louis Jewish Light

Rabbi Megan Doherty has served as director of Hillel and Jewish Campus Life for four years. Before coming to Oberlin College, Rabbi Megan worked at Mishkan Haam Reconstructionist community in New York and Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale University. In February, she wrote an op-ed for Cleveland.com titled Ohios abortion laws interfere with the practice of my religion. The Review spoke with her to learn more about why she decided to write the article and how her faith informs her political beliefs.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You attended the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College in Philadelphia. How did this education influence the way you view Judaism?

Reconstructionism has this really serious commitment to the notion of Judaism as an evolving religious civilization. One of the famous aphorisms of Reconstructionism is that the past has a vote, but not a veto, which means that you take the past really seriously. You have to give the past its voice and its vote, and more broadly, you have to ask: How are all of these traditions and practices and ideas relevant, now, in our lives?

In your op-ed, you explained that the Mishpatim section from the Torah establishes out that a pregnant persons life takes precedence over the life of a fetus. Could you talk more about the section itself?

The Torah is read on this annual cycle in Jewish communities, and, with a few calendrical exceptions, the whole Jewish community around the world will be reading the same chunk of the Torah on a given week, and Mishpatim is one of these sections.

Up until Mishpatim weve had this sweeping story of slavery, Egypt, plagues, the Red Sea and figuring out life, and then this revelation on Mount Sinai. And now we have Mishpatim, which literally means laws the way I like to think about the Mishpatim Torah portion is as the first draft of how we will live in a community of free people.

And here is the actual text within Mishpatim, and Im paraphrasing here: When men fight and one of them winds up pushing or shoving a woman who is pregnant and she is physically fine but there is a miscarriage, then the one who pushed her will surely be punished or fined according to the payment her husband demands. But then, we have this line saying that if she is physically hurt, then the penalty will be a life for a life, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth which in Jewish law, the rabbis understood to be financial compensation. No one was ever actually plucking out peoples eyes. Crucially, the distinction is that the fetus is separated out it is different. And in context, this distinction is coming in a series of descriptions detailing what happens if you murder someone, if you commit manslaughter, issues around the death penalty, and issues around what do when you kill a slave. Ultimately, it becomes really clear in context that in the case of a miscarriage, the death of a fetus is not equivalent to taking the life of a living person.

In what ways does the passage you described above specifically resonate with you?

Ive got a very personal answer, and Ive got an academic one. The academic one is that for Jews living today, our Judaism is Rabbinic Judaism, the Judaism of the Talmud, as well as the later evolutions from the Talmud. These evolutions range from the medieval codes of Jewish law into the modern world of people figuring out how to live according to these codes.

When I read the Torah and especially the legal parts of it Im not always reading it to be like, This is what I should do. For me, when I read the text, I am really curious about the womans experience.

And I am really interested in the idea [of how people in the] ancient Near East were thinking about and experiencing pregnancy and child loss. What was that experience? Was it uncommon? Was it common? Were enough women getting shoved by random men having fist fights that this needed to be encoded in a law? Or is it here to demonstrate how we think about this potential life? Then, the really personal piece is that Ive always been pro-choice. It was never anything I really ever had to think about too much it just made sense. Its the bodily autonomy that we have.

When I had close friends who were pregnant, and even more so when my partner was pregnant, it became extra clear to me that this is vital: that people should be able to exercise that autonomy [and] authority over their own bodies and not have to donate their womb for nine months if they dont want to. But even more than that, pregnancy is so dangerous, even today, and the experience of being pregnant is so painful and uncomfortable and often not always good for the health of the pregnant person. I love babies and I love my daughter, but the idea that the state should be imposing upon someone to take that risk on their own lives, on their own physical being, is just wrong.

For me, this text in the Torah, and the way that Jewish law evolved to say that the mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional state of pregnant person takes precedence over the life of a fetus Im proud of that in Judaism, that way of really respecting and honoring the risk and the work of pregnancy. I found that to be really powerful.

The argument you lay out in the article in favor of abortion rights is a First Amendment one. You argue that outlawing abortion would violate your religious freedom as a Jewish person. But how do you decide which religious belief systems should influence politics?

I would say that part of why I wanted to frame my argument in the context of a First Amendment argument is because hot-button issues like abortion, like same-sex marriage the default framing in society and in law is a pretty Christian one. I think if were going to say that we are a country that offers the practice of free religion, with a Constitution saying Congress should make no law respecting the establishment of religion, then that has to be taken seriously.

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Rabbi Megan Doherty on the Heartbeat Bill The Oberlin Review - The Oberlin Review

Purim programming for the Wilf and Beren campuses, following COVID-19 safety protocol, will begin on Thursday, Feb. 25, the night of Purim. Yeshiva University issued a statement to Wilf students from the administration of the Undergraduate Torah Studies (UTS) and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), as well as one from administrators of the Beren Campus for Beren students, regarding safety precautions for the holiday.

The Wilf letter which was sent to undergraduate students by Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky on Feb. 18 and signed by three roshei kollel, two menahalei yeshiva of RIETS, Vice Provost for Student Affairs Dr. Chaim Nissel and President Ari Berman began with a commemoration of the one-year remembrance of the first case of COVID-19 on the Wilf Campus and its subsequent closing. It then declared in bold and underlined font, We strongly encourage all talmidim to stay in Yeshiva for Purim, in an attempt to halt any further spread of the virus. It went on to detail the guidelines that students who will be leaving campus for Purim should follow.

The Beren administration sent out a similar email discussing precautions as an accompaniment to the release of the Purim schedule; the Beren letter was signed by Nissel, Associate Dean of Torah Studies and Spiritual Life Shoshana Schechter and Assistant Dean of Students Dr. Sara Asher.

Both letters mentioned preventative measures to be obeyed, such as mask-wearing, social distancing and not attending any Purim mesibah or Purim party of any type, discouraging any option besides for eating with immediate family or apartment roommates. The letters stated that failure to adhere to such guidelines would result in an insistence from the administration to not return to campus for a full week.

Wilf students will have a dinner sponsored by the Student Organization of Yeshiva (SOY) on Purim night, held after Megillah reading to break the Taanis Esther fast. The dinner will be followed by Rebbe and Talmidim Purim Torah Time, refreshments, divrei Torah (words of Torah), a ping pong tournament and a Q&A session from Rabbi Herschel Schachter. This will be Rabbi Schachters first in-person address at a YU event since the pandemic began in March 2020.

The Wilf Campuss Purim Day schedule includes the Kimu VKiblu Kollel, where students will have an early shacharit and Megilla reading, followed by breakfast and learning in the Harry Fischel Beit Midrash, located in Zysman Hall. After the two hours of learning, there is a Special Hot Purim Seudah, with free seforim including works by roshei yeshiva Rabbis Hershel Schachter, Elchanan Adler and Daniel Stein and raffles offered to all participants.

Over 100 students have already signed up for the Kimu VeKiblu Kollel, showing their interest in our plan to engage in serious Talmud Torah for this year's Purim," said Dean for Mens UTS Rabbi Yosef Kalinsky.

On the Beren Campus, scheduled events also begin Thursday night with food provided by Carlos and Gabbys for breaking the fast, sponsored by the Torah Activities Council (TAC). For the remainder of the night, Beren students will be celebrating with music, crafts and activities together with friends, Mrs. Penina Bernstein and Dean Shoshana Schechter, according to an email sent by the Beren administration. There is also a planned VNahafochu theme with costumes preferred in the style of dress from the year 2012. The schedule for Friday morning includes Megillah Reading followed by a Seudah.

It was also announced that all shiurim would take place over Zoom on the Sunday following Purim, and all students would be required to take a COVID-19 test in Furst Hall the next day.

Some students were satisfied with the protocols and scheduling implemented by the university. I think that YU has so far done a great job in taking precautions and making me feel safe COVID-wise, expressed Elisheva Adouth (SCW 23). In terms of Purim, I know they have done well preparing and I have confidence that they know what they are doing at this point. Multiple emails from the administration against going to larger gatherings was an amazing choice and I hope that people follow it!Photo Caption: Purim programming for Wilf and Beren campusesPhoto Credit: Yeshiva University

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YU Releases COVID-Safe Purim Programming for Beren and Wilf Students - The Commentator - The Commentator

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

It is eerie. It is also what can be called an Emunah Builder. One could perhaps suggest that it is coincidence, but the combination of all of these coincidences in one area, particularly when they are otherwise unexplained is perhaps too much of a coincidence.

WHY THE EXTRA VES? WHY NOT JUST A VOV?

Lets look at the listing of the ten sons of Haman as they are being hung at the end of the Megillah. There are two columns the names are to the right side. On the left side is a series of ten of the same words Ves.

But why? Why not just have the connecting vov appear before each of the ten names? Why the ten extra words?

To answer this question, we go to one of the Tannaim. It is either Shimon HaAmasuni or Nechemiah HaAmasuni, a debate in the Talmud. Either way, he was a second generation Tanna and perhaps even the person known as Nachum Ish Gamzu according to some sources. The Gemorah in Psachim (22b) and in Kiddushin (57a) both discuss him and his method of exegesis. He looked at every Es in the Torah and stated that it comes to include something else. But what? Or who?

THE FOUR STRANGELY-SIZED LETTERS

Now lets take a deeper look at the letters of the hand-written Megillah itself. There are four unexplained irregularities in the orthography of the letters. Three letters are written in a significantly smaller size. One letter is written in a much larger size.

THE SMALLER LETTERS

In the listing of the ten sons of Haman found in the Megillah (Megillah 9:7-9), there are three letters that are written smaller: the taf of Parshandasa, the shin of Parmashta and the zayin of Vizasa. The Gematria value of these smaller letters is 707.

THE LARGER LETTER

In that last son of Haman, Vizasa, the Vov is written much larger. Rav Michel Dov Ber Weissmandel ztl, a tzaddik who saved thousands of people during the holocaust and who tried to save hundreds of thousands of others, made the following discovery:

If this Vov represents the sixth millennium of creation, and the other three smaller letters represent the years the total is 5707. 5707 corresponds to the year 1946 the year that ten Nazis were also hung at the Nuremberg trials.

THE HANGING DATE

Although the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its verdicts sentencing the leaders of the Nazi party to death by hanging on October 1st, 1946, they were hung on October 16th the 21st of Tishrei. That date corresponds to the final judgement day of the Hebrew year the point of no return Hoshana Rabbah.

THE BIZARRE DECLARATION

Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service, who was chosen by random lot [pur in Hebrew] to represent the American press at the execution of the ten Nazis wrote as follows:

Julius Streicher made his melodramatic appearance at 2:12 a.m.

While his manacles were being removed and his bare hands bound, this ugly, dwarfish little man, wearing a threadbare suit and a well-worn bluish shirt buttoned to the neck but without a tie (he was notorious during his days of power for his flashy dress), glanced at the three wooden scaffolds rising menacingly in front of him. Then he glanced around the room, his eyes resting momentarily upon the small group of witnesses. By this time, his hands were tied securely behind his back. Two guards, one on each arm, directed him to Number One gallows on the left of the entrance. He walked steadily the six feet to the first wooden step but his face was twitching He was pushed the last two steps to the mortal spot beneath the hangmans rope. The rope was being held back against a wooden rail by the hangman.

Streicher was swung suddenly to face the witnesses and glared at them. Suddenly he screamed, Purim Fest 1946.

This is very strange. Why would he scream Purim feast 1946?

THE REQUEST

And the king said to Esther the queen, The Jews have slain and destroyed five hundred men in Shushan the capital, and the ten sons of HamanNow whatever your petition, it shall be granted; whatever your request further, it shall be done.

Esther responded, If it pleasing to the King, let it be granted to the Jews that are in Shushan to do tomorrow also as this day, and let Hamans ten sons be hanged upon the gallows. (Megilas Esther 9:12-14)

Our sages tell us that every place in the megillah that it mentions the king it also refers to Hashem the King. Esthers request, or prayer was also directed to Hashem Himself the Ultimate King.

WHO WERE THE ORIGINAL TEN SONS OF HAMAN?

WHO WERE THE TEN FUTURE SONS OF HAMAN?

IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN THESE NAZIS AND THE ORIGINAL TEN?

There was a great Kabbalist named Sason Ben Mordechai Shanduch (1747-1830) who lived in Iraq. In his sefer entitled Davar BIto, he provides a Hebrew root that indicates the specific evil quality inherent in each of the original ten sons of Haman. Based on Rabbi Shanduchs writings, we can perhaps conjecture which each of the sons of Haman comes to include:

Perhaps the correlation of the original ten sons of Haman to the future sons of Haman the Nazis could be better tweaked, but the ten prominent Veses in the left column do indicate that it comes to include specific people.

The author can be reached at [emailprotected]

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Haman's Sons Correlating to the Nuremberg Nazis YS - Yeshiva World News

Marc Mandel| Newport Daily News

In the year 1848, Rabbi Israel Salanter, wrote the following words as a response to the cholera epidemic.Be sure to followthe behaviors which the wise doctors prescribe, for walking in the light of their words is also our religious duty, thus upholding life in this physical world to be good and to do good." This idea of Rabbi Salanter is based on the belief that science and religion are unified. Science helps us partner with God to make the world a better place.Jewish liturgy offers blessings for many occasions. Should we recite ablessing upon receiving the COVID-19 vaccine?

A colleague of mine, Rabbi Yosie Levine from New York has written, "Not everything warrants a blessing, but, in the midst of the untold suffering brought about by this pandemic, the almost miraculous production of a vaccine doesrepresent a dose of unusually good news. As the Talmud teaches, hearing exceptionally good tidings is reason enough to recite this blessing."Furthermore, he points out that there is a custom to say a blessingin a case where a person sees his/her friend for the first time in 30 days.Considering that this vaccine will allow people in isolation to soon rejoin with their friends and family, there will be much to celebrate.

There is also a blessing that is recitedwhen a person recovers from an illness or returns from a dangerous sea journey. This blessingis said when a person is saved from a state of danger or fear for ones safety. It is a blessing of redemption. My colleague, Rabbi Barry Dolinger of Providence points out that the COVID-19 vaccine certainly should require a blessing, because the vaccine benefits therecipient, and the community at large, by helping to bring herd immunity. I hope that all of us in Rhode Island will soon have the opportunity to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and when you receive yours, you might join me in reciting the blessing,"Blessed are You God, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to thisseason."

Rabbi Marc Mandel is the rabbi at the Touro Synagogue in Newport, the oldest synagogue building in the United States. For more information please visitwww.tourosynagogue.org.ClergyCorner appears each week in The Daily News and online atnewportri.com.

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CLERGY CORNER: Is there a blessing for the COVID-19 vaccine? - newportri.com

The impulse to celebrate the death of ones enemies is very human. When the wicked perish there are shouts of joy, the Book of Proverbs says. The passage is descriptive, of course, not prescriptive, but there is nonetheless a recognition of the upsurge of excitement at seeing someone you detest leave this Earth. At the Red Sea, the children of Israel sang as the Egyptians who had pursued them drowned.

But Proverbs also says, Do not be glad when your enemy falls. The Talmud relates that when the angels joined in the celebration at the Red Sea, they were rebuked by God for rejoicing. And today, when Jews commemorate their exodus from Egypt at the Passover seder, we take a drop of wine from the cup to mark the diminishment of joy we should feel at death, even the death of our enemies. Feelings cannot always be regulated, but the reality of death supervenes, and any expression of happiness should be tempered by sadness.

The taboo against rejoicing at anothers death is, of course, part of the frisson of shocking jokes, which work because of the first, aghast instant. The rationale for telling such jokes is easily understood. Those who celebrate the death of public figures invariably point to their malign influence. And while people are still in the public arena and able to fight back, ridiculing their ideas can be an important weapon. Humor has punctured many totalitarians more effectively than argument.

But there is a difference between condemning someone at or after their deathand certainly, there is much to condemn in Limbaughs periodic rhetoric of crueltyand celebrating the death itself. The tone of our public sphere will not be elevated by the way we talk about those we like or treasure. The test will be how we talk about those we oppose or even detest. Ridicule rallies the troops; it does not open avenues of dialogue. Limbaughs signature monologues were fusillades of facts, confabulations, and insults in prose and song, in the service of a relentlessly partisan agenda. To celebrate his death is to emulate his methods.

We should have learned by now that a public figure is a person. The character onstage, performing for an audience, is not everything, and a public person does not die. A human being dies, an individual with connections and fears and a history and a soul.

To mock someones death is also to mock the pain of those who loved him. It is to see only part of a person, and therefore ignore the fullness of a human being. What better way to begin the restoration of civility than to refrain from dancing on the graves of the dead?

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Death Is Nothing to Celebrate - The Atlantic