Dear Rabbi Zahavy - Your Talmudic Advice Column March 2019
Arguing about Orthodox Women Rabbis and Finding your Past Lives
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I have been bothered deeply to read and hear about a conflict among Teaneck Orthodox rabbis over the hiring of a woman in a rabbinical capacity at a local synagogue.
I think our rabbis ought to set better examples in their behavior and be more progressive in their views about women.
Tired of tiffs in Teaneck
Dear Tired,
I’m sure you realize, first of all, that contention over female clergy is an issue only in the Orthodox world. The Conservative movement has counted women in the minyan for decades and ordained women starting in 1985. Reform Judaism also takes an egalitarian approach to the role of women in their communities. Its first woman rabbi was ordained in 1972.
Sorry, I fear there is not much I can suggest to you to do to help resolve this Orthodox rift. And I say this not based on an assessment of the contemporary persons and institutions involved in the current spat.
2/28/19
1/31/19
When will the world end? - My Jewish Standard - Dear Rabbi Zahavy - Talmudic Advice Column for February 2019
When will the world end? - My Jewish Standard - Dear Rabbi Zahavy - Talmudic Advice Column for February 2019
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
When will the world come to an end?
Counting Down in Cresskill
Dear Counting,
At first glance, that’s a good question. As you may know, that question is a popular meme in imaginative literature, drama and films, and a prominent theme in religious teachings. It’s not automatically an outlandish question. But it raises my concerns that you ask it.
My first trepidation is that you ask this question because you are in a depressed or agitated disposition and looking for an escape. Take a look in the mirror. Introspect about your own state of mind. Ask people close to you if they have any concerns about your mood.
Are you unhappy at work or at home? Are you facing medical challenges and seek escape from them? Are you looking for some sort of ultimate external resolutions to your problems? If you detect any of these circumstances in your life, it would be good for you to see a therapist, and not seek to calculate the number of hours left in the existence of the universe.
Now it may be that you are sound in your mood levels, but perhaps you are looking around at the world and see things that genuinely trouble you, and that you feel you are powerless to control.
I remember from when I was quite young that my grandmother told me one day in a calm and reassuring voice that she was sure the moshiach — the redeemer messiah that we Jews have been awaiting for millennia — soon will come to redeem us.
What made her sure were the signs of the times that she detected all around us — particularly what she judged was the precipitous decline of morality among young people in our culture.
End-of-days narratives come in many forms. Often, they seek to be reassuring, in a strange, unsettling way. In the genre called apocalyptic (meaning: revealing the end), the story told often relates to us that upheavals or cataclysms soon will be upon us, followed by a change in the way the world is run. After that, we powerless people, who face suffering now, soon will be in power.
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
When will the world come to an end?
Counting Down in Cresskill
Dear Counting,
At first glance, that’s a good question. As you may know, that question is a popular meme in imaginative literature, drama and films, and a prominent theme in religious teachings. It’s not automatically an outlandish question. But it raises my concerns that you ask it.
My first trepidation is that you ask this question because you are in a depressed or agitated disposition and looking for an escape. Take a look in the mirror. Introspect about your own state of mind. Ask people close to you if they have any concerns about your mood.
Are you unhappy at work or at home? Are you facing medical challenges and seek escape from them? Are you looking for some sort of ultimate external resolutions to your problems? If you detect any of these circumstances in your life, it would be good for you to see a therapist, and not seek to calculate the number of hours left in the existence of the universe.
Now it may be that you are sound in your mood levels, but perhaps you are looking around at the world and see things that genuinely trouble you, and that you feel you are powerless to control.
I remember from when I was quite young that my grandmother told me one day in a calm and reassuring voice that she was sure the moshiach — the redeemer messiah that we Jews have been awaiting for millennia — soon will come to redeem us.
What made her sure were the signs of the times that she detected all around us — particularly what she judged was the precipitous decline of morality among young people in our culture.
End-of-days narratives come in many forms. Often, they seek to be reassuring, in a strange, unsettling way. In the genre called apocalyptic (meaning: revealing the end), the story told often relates to us that upheavals or cataclysms soon will be upon us, followed by a change in the way the world is run. After that, we powerless people, who face suffering now, soon will be in power.
1/18/19
What is the Meaning of Life? - Dear Rabbi Zahavy - My Jewish Standard Talmudic Advice Column for January 2019
Dear Rabbi Zahavy
Your Talmudic Advice Column
January 2019
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
What is the meaning of life?
Wondering in Weehawken
Dear Wondering,
Sure, at this time of the new year it makes sense for a person to wax philosophical and to ask such a big question.
However, let me consider that perhaps you were not really serious in sending in this question to begin with.
In that case, I will answer by quoting to you from the epilogue, the last scene of the 1983 Monty Python comedy film “The Meaning of Life.” There the host opens an envelope containing, well yes, the meaning of life. She reads it out loud and here is her profound advice: “Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
While that may not be the momentous meaning of life, that is not bad advice.
Now, let me consider the alternative, and take your question as a serious inquiry and try to reply in kind.
Your Talmudic Advice Column
January 2019
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
What is the meaning of life?
Wondering in Weehawken
Dear Wondering,
Sure, at this time of the new year it makes sense for a person to wax philosophical and to ask such a big question.
However, let me consider that perhaps you were not really serious in sending in this question to begin with.
In that case, I will answer by quoting to you from the epilogue, the last scene of the 1983 Monty Python comedy film “The Meaning of Life.” There the host opens an envelope containing, well yes, the meaning of life. She reads it out loud and here is her profound advice: “Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
While that may not be the momentous meaning of life, that is not bad advice.
Now, let me consider the alternative, and take your question as a serious inquiry and try to reply in kind.
1/13/19
Is Haym Soloveitchik a hero?
[Republished from 3/14/2013] You may start reading about this controversy here.
Professor Haym Soloveitchik has stepped up yet again to "blow the whistle" on the "insufficiencies" of the scholarship of Professor Talya Fishman. Haym has raised his mission to the level of a crusade with his latest rejoinders and critiques, published here and here.
Why the crusade? Haym explains his motives through a personal anecdote in his rejoinder on his web site:
Haym has stepped up heroically to claim supremacy of his opinion over Fishman's based on his assertion that by his "rigorous standards of quality," Fishman is illiterate in rabbinics. Therefore her work is worthless. And unless Haym roots Fishman out of the profession, the field of "rabbinics" will be ruined.
So Haym imagines himself to be a scholar-hero. All we can say is, Bravo to brave Haym the Hero.
[Republished from 3/14/2013]
Professor Haym Soloveitchik has stepped up yet again to "blow the whistle" on the "insufficiencies" of the scholarship of Professor Talya Fishman. Haym has raised his mission to the level of a crusade with his latest rejoinders and critiques, published here and here.
Why the crusade? Haym explains his motives through a personal anecdote in his rejoinder on his web site:
When Becoming the People of the Talmud appeared and then won the Jewish Book Council Award for Scholarship, the danger posed by this was clear; nevertheless, I was conflicted about putting my assessment into print. I discussed the matter with one of my oldest colleagues over dinner. He listened carefully and said, “Haym, the only way you can justify the review that you are thinking of is if you state openly what the real reason for it is, the larger issue that is at stake here. You can only do that is by becoming first, a whistle-blower and then stating matters with an explicitness that breaches the proprieties of academic engagement. You have to point out not simply mistakes but also their elementary nature and what they say about the writer’s basic competence.” I thought about this during the meal and, as it was drawing to a close, replied: “Those rules of propriety, and they are good ones, apply when they are superimposed on the quality controls that function as a matter of course in academia. Everyone then understands what is being said by indirection. However, when that community is wholly in the dark as to what is transpiring, those rules must be breached. Look at what happened in Talmud. A few reviews were, in fact, written in the 1960s and ‘70s pointing out the errors of the author and hinting at his ignorance. The criticisms were shrugged off, because people thought, ‘Oh well, everyone makes mistakes.’ They didn’t know that the errors were ones that a schoolboy would never have made. This couldn’t be stated openly because it was against the rules of the game. Look at the situation now. If these rules aren’t finally broken and the whistle blown, there will be little left in a decade.”I that none of the scholarship in the field that Haym calls "Rabbinics" is scientific, or for that matter even vaguely social scientific. So "facts" are not at issue in judging the worth of contributions to the field. Assertions by these scholars are "opinion and conjecture" about matters that are far distant from us in time, space, culture and language.
Haym has stepped up heroically to claim supremacy of his opinion over Fishman's based on his assertion that by his "rigorous standards of quality," Fishman is illiterate in rabbinics. Therefore her work is worthless. And unless Haym roots Fishman out of the profession, the field of "rabbinics" will be ruined.
So Haym imagines himself to be a scholar-hero. All we can say is, Bravo to brave Haym the Hero.
[Republished from 3/14/2013]
Update on the Insults: A Battle Over a Book: Haym Soloveitchik v. Talya Fishman
[This post is edited and republished from my original post of 12/18/2012]
My once-upon-a-time teacher at Yeshiva University has panned a recent book about rabbinic cultural development.
It's a veritable battle over a book, Haym Soloveitchik v. Talya Fishman.
The book is Becoming the People of the Talmud: Oral Torah as Written Tradition in Medieval Jewish Cultures (Jewish Culture and Contexts)
.The review by Haym is locked away to subscribers only at the Jewish Review of Books. I infer from hearsay and from the rejoinder that it is quite negative. (see below for details.)
Fishman is busy issuing several rejoinders to the review, the first part is here - Response to Haym Soloveitchik “The People of the Book: Since When?” in Jewish Review of Books, Winter 2012, pp. 14-18.
She starts off, "Reading Professor Soloveitchik’s remarks, I was unable to recognize the book that I wrote." She then makes a methodical case for the inaccuracies and errors of Haym's review.
12/6/18
Does Religion Cause Terrorism? My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column for December 2018
Does Religion Cause Terrorism?
My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column for December 2018
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I sit next to a person in synagogue who frequently engages me in conversation and tells me how evil Islam is. He seems preoccupied with this subject. He says Islam is a terrorist religion and he fears that all Muslims are potential terrorists. He says that sure, some members of that religion pretend to be friendly. But he claims if you turn your back on a Muslim, they will slit your throat.
I know we need to be vigilant to protect ourselves against our enemies. But I feel this person has gone off the deep end and makes me more uncomfortable each time he goes on another tirade. What should I do about this?
Tired of Terror Tirades in Teaneck
Dear Tired,
My first impulse is to smile and tell you to change your seat in synagogue. But I know that where we sit often is not easily shifted. If you move to another place, you will perhaps cause a cascading domino effect of seating shifts. And who wants to upset the equilibrium of worship?
My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column for December 2018
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I sit next to a person in synagogue who frequently engages me in conversation and tells me how evil Islam is. He seems preoccupied with this subject. He says Islam is a terrorist religion and he fears that all Muslims are potential terrorists. He says that sure, some members of that religion pretend to be friendly. But he claims if you turn your back on a Muslim, they will slit your throat.
I know we need to be vigilant to protect ourselves against our enemies. But I feel this person has gone off the deep end and makes me more uncomfortable each time he goes on another tirade. What should I do about this?
Tired of Terror Tirades in Teaneck
Dear Tired,
My first impulse is to smile and tell you to change your seat in synagogue. But I know that where we sit often is not easily shifted. If you move to another place, you will perhaps cause a cascading domino effect of seating shifts. And who wants to upset the equilibrium of worship?
12/2/18
The Talmud Explains Hanukkah
There is no Mishnah or Talmud tractate for the festival of lights. Why is that?
It is an incredible question. Not going to speculate. All we have in rabbinic literature is this...
The Talmud (Bavli Shabbat 21b) explains what is Hanukkah:
What is Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev commence the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden.
For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit the lamp therewith for eight days.
The following year these days were appointed a Festival with the recital of Hallel and thanksgiving.
What else is there to say?
It is an incredible question. Not going to speculate. All we have in rabbinic literature is this...
The Talmud (Bavli Shabbat 21b) explains what is Hanukkah:
What is Hanukkah? For our Rabbis taught: On the twenty-fifth of Kislev commence the days of Hanukkah, which are eight on which a lamentation for the dead and fasting are forbidden.
For when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient for one day's lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit the lamp therewith for eight days.
The following year these days were appointed a Festival with the recital of Hallel and thanksgiving.
What else is there to say?
11/8/18
Awesome 665 page translation of Hullin by Tzvee Zahavy - Great for Daf Yomi Study
Incredible 665 page translation of Talmud Hullin!For Daf Yomi Hullin for your Kindle or Kindle App. Here is the Product Description:
To know what food is kosher, that is, fit to eat according to rabbinic Judaism, you must study the principles set forth in this volume, the Babylonian Talmud Tractate Hullin.
This translation, (approx. 665 pages) adheres closely to the text so that the reader has a sense of the structure and balance of the original. Yet at the same time it conveys the flow of the legal arguments and debates, the dramatic unfolding of events in stories, and the sensitivities to words and language in the exegetical texts.
Its aim is to facilitate a smooth conversation between readers and the text so that, without consulting the original Hebrew and Aramaic version, they can appreciate the substantive meaning and recognize some major aspects of the style of the Talmudic text.
11/1/18
#MeToo and Jewish Sex Laws: My Jewish Standard Dear Rabbi Zahavy Talmudic Advice Column for November 2018
Dear Rabbi Zahavy,
I just read an opinion by an outspoken Orthodox rabbi that made sense to me. He said that many centuries ago Orthodox Judaism resolved the terrible problem of the harassment of women by instituting many practices and customs to govern relations between men and women. Isn’t he right? Shouldn’t we men speak up now about this, and let the world know how to resolve the #MeToo crisis by promoting and enforcing our Jewish rules?
Protector of Women in Paramus
Dear Protector,
I believe you refer to the recent article by an Orthodox rabbi, “A safer space for women in Orthodox Judaism’s rules for sex.” He calls the traditional regulations in this arena “realistic and wise.”
And do you know what? After the intense struggles of the past year over #MeToo, which brought down more than 200 powerful men who were accused of harassment (according to the New York Times), it’s really tempting to pause, consider the alternatives, and declare to the rabbis’ team a “touchdown” — to admit we need “rules for sex” and consider seriously advocating for the rabbinic system.
But allow me to develop a sports analogy. Sure, we “referees” can look at the hard-fought struggle on the field, and the struggle in our society, and then declare that tradition has the “touchdown” solution to the problems.
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