Danae King|The Columbus Dispatch

In a time punctuated by death, Rabbi Areyah Kaltmann wants people to learn how to appreciate life.

Kaltmann, executive director of the Lori Schottenstein Chabad Center in New Albany, is encouraging people to take a virtual course titled Journey of the Soul.

The course, offered by the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, will explore beliefs about death, the soul and the afterlife. The Chabad Center is offering the six-session course over Zoom for $80 starting Wednesday. Feb. 3. It will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, and those interested can register at http://www.chabadcolumbus.com.

Death is both mysterious and inevitable,Kaltmann, who is also one of the course instructors, saidin a statement. Understanding death as a continuation of life reveals the holiness of life while putting everything in a dramatically new context. The soul is on one long journey that is greater than each particular chapter.

The course, for Jewish and non-Jewish people, will begin by discussing Jewish beliefs on life and death.

Judaism emphasizes the importance of life on Earth over all else,though Jews do believe in heaven, said Chris Johnson, clinical professor of sociology at Texas State University. Johnson wrote a book on different religions views on the afterlife and death titled How Different Religions View Death & Afterlife.

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The Talmud says live each day like its your last day and that will be a very meaningful day, Kaltmann told The Dispatch.

The Talmud, the book of Jewish law, is one of the most challenging religious texts in the world to read.

You can't live a meaningful life unless you understand what life is all about, Kaltmann said of the course, which counts as continuing education for some medical and mental health professionals. What this is about is how to live a life. When you understand death, then that causes you to understand life.

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Kaltmann, who has worked in Columbus for 29 years, did four funerals in two weeks for the first time in December because of the number of people dying from the coronavirus.

He said that understanding death will cause people to live life with more meaning, especially because its important in Judaism to live for your loved ones who have died as their ambassador in this world.

Unlike some Christian denominations, Jewish people dont really focus on the afterlife, Johnson said.

Theyre more concerned about making this life better and this world (better), he said.

And Jews focus on thegrieving loved ones left behind after a person's deathand their care, Johnson said.

Jan Leibovitz Alloy, 68, of the East Side, said she knows there is a concept of heaven in Judaism but that shes not really familiar with what heaven actuallyis because it isnot emphasized.

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Alloy, who plans to take the course, has not lost any close family members during the pandemicbut remembers when her grandparents died and the Jewish rituals that comforted her during her time of grief.

The Jewish tradition of throwing a handful of dirt into a person's grave, for example, seemedlike a final goodbye, she said.

And shiva, a seven-day periodof mourning during which close relatives sit after a persons funeral, also helpedher grieve.

The shiva rituals, I think, are very comforting, Alloy said. To have people take care of you for seven days and talk to you and tell stories about your loved ones. And the persons name is mentioned over and over and over. I think thats very comforting.

Alloy, who is Jewish, thinks a lot about death when it comes to her parents, who are still alive but well into their 90s.

"I wonder,geez, what comes next?" she said. "It's not that I will grieve any less when my parents die, but I will at least have a better understanding of what to do and what others have done before me."

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Alloyis hoping to learn more about what other faiths believe about death, grieving and the afterlife through the course.

Johnson believes that comparing different belief systems is important.

"Being able to independently investigate truth is absolutely essential for one's soul and one's outcome in life," he said, adding that classes like "Journey of the Soul" can be important learning opportunities for people investigating different faith approaches.

The reason Jews don't emphasize the afterlife is because, while they believe it's great, it's not the same because there is no free choice in heaven as there is on Earth,Kaltmann said.

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"When you choose to do good, that's powerful, that's the ultimate," he said.

Jews live life and do good deeds for their loved ones who have died, after they go through the mourning process, Kaltmann said.

He hopes the course gives people hope.

"By understanding we are our loved ones' ambassadors, then we can be more impactful in our daily lives," he said. "So by understandingdeath, we can live life."

dking@dispatch.com

@DanaeKing

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Chabad course explores life, death and the afterlife in the age of COVID-19 - The Columbus Dispatch

(JTA) Former President Trumps impeachment defense team intends to argue that his infamous Jan. 6 speech, in which he exhorted his followers to fight like hell and march to the Capitol,was permitted by his First Amendment rights to free speech. Political opponents are already calling reference to the well-known Supreme Court decision (Schenck v. United States, 1919) that limits free speech to exclude harmful expressions such as, most famously, falsely yelling fire! in a crowded theater.

The phrase is not theoretical: It was drawn from a tragedy that occurred on a cold night in January 1887 at the Hebrew Dramatic Club of London and took the lives of 17 people.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, a Supreme Court justice and noted theater fan who frequently traveled to London for the season (sometimes even publishing his impressions in The New York Times), precisely recorded the events of that night in his memorable phrase. To be sure, other fatal stampedes had occurred closer to home, including at a church in 1902 and a Christmas party in 1913. But it was the Hebrew Dramatic Club incident that found expression in Holmes decision and subsequently in popular American discourse.

The legal basis for the performance was somewhat sketchy: Theatrical performances in London required a permit, hence the official designation of the Yiddish theater as a club. (Two years later, the owner would be fined 36 pounds, plus an additional 3 for court costs, for failing to procure one, and also for selling spirituous liquors on the premises.) According to contemporary reports, some 500 people paid a shilling and packed the theater, which apparently had a capacity of 300, to see Jacob Adler, the famous Odessa-born heartthrob, perform in Der Spanisher Tsigayner (The Spanish Gypsy).

The circumstances of the accident are not clear. In his memoirs, Adler asserts that the shout of fire! came from an audience member who confused a stage fire with a real threat. A major investigative report in Lloyds Weekly Newspaper suggests that someone in the theater accidentally broke a gas line. Although the flow of combustible material was quickly stanched with a handkerchief, the distinct smell filled the crowded chamber, prompting a stagehand to quickly shut off the gas line, engulfing the chamber in darkness. It was at this point that someone falsely shouted fire, perhaps fearing an explosion.

The resulting stampede for the exits would ultimately result in the 17 deaths primarily women in their teens and 20s who had come to see Adler in person. The oldest victim was a 70-year old tailor named Isaac Levy along his wife, Gertrude; the youngest was 9-year-old Eva Marks of Spital Street. Lurid line drawings of the dead and the dying were featured in the weekend edition of The Illustrated Police Newswith titles like The Fatal Spot and Laying out the Dead.

Students of Talmud may remember another distant tragedy of a similar nature. A group of Jews, hiding in a cave somewhere in the Judean Desert, were startled by the sudden fear that the Romans were upon them. In the chaos that ensued as they struggled to escape, they killed one another in greater numbers than their enemies had killed among them (Shabbat 60a), later discovering that they were alone: There was no reason for anyone to cry Romans! in the crowded cavern.

The circumstances of Schenck v. United States were far from a crowded Yiddish theater the case revolved around the distribution of flyers that encouraged young men to resist conscription. Yet Holmes saw the common element the use of communication in such a manner that one might reasonably expect a clear and present danger and a subsequent evil to result. In such cases, Holmes wrote in the majority opinion, the most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic.

The question before the U.S. Senate is essentially the same. Will the senators reach a similar conclusion?

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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This deadly tragedy at a Yiddish performance is the reason it's illegal to yell 'fire!' in a crowded theater - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

By Rabbi Dr. Tvzi Hersh Weinreb

When I was young, I was an avid reader of novels. As Ive grown older, I have found myself more interested in good biographies, especially those of great men that try to focus on what made them great. Particularly, I try to discover the roles played by father and mother in the formation of these personalities.

Bible and Talmud contain much material about the lives of prophets, kings and sages, but only occasionally give us a glimpse of the role that parental influences played in making them great.

I recently came across a passage in a book by a man I admire, Rabbi Yitzchak Yaakov Reines (1839-1915). He led an innovative yeshiva in Lida, Lithuania, and was a founder of the Mizrachi Religious Zionist movement. A prolific writer, one of his works is entitled Nod Shel Demaot, which translates as A Flask of Tears.

Rav Reines writes about the important role mothers play in the development of their children, sons and daughters alike. He emphasizes the role of the mother in the development of the Torah scholar.

The sources of his thesis include a verse from this weeks Torah portion, Yitro, in which we read that the L-rd called to Moses from the mountain and said, Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

The Midrash explains that the house of Jacob refers to women and the children of Israel to men. Both men and women must be involved if we are to become a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

Why the women? asks the Midrash, which answers, Because they are the ones who can inspire their children to walk in the ways of Torah.

Rav Reines adduces another biblical verse to make his point. He refers to the words in the very first chapter of the Proverbs, in which King Solomon offers this good counsel: My son, heed the discipline (mussar) of your father, and do not forsake the instruction (Torah) of your mother.

Then comes the tour de force of Rav Reines essay: the biographical analysis of a great Talmudic sage, Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya. The student of Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot) will recognize his name from a passage in Chapter Two where we read of the five disciples of Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai. They are enumerated, and the praises of each of them are recounted. Of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya, we learn, Ashrei yoladeto (happy is she who gave birth to him).

Of all the outstanding disciples, only Rabbi Yehoshuas mother is brought into the picture. What special role did she play in his life that earned her honorable mention?

Rav Reines responds by relating an important story of which most of us are sadly ignorant. Bereshit Rabba 64:10 tells of a time, not long after the destruction of the Second Temple, when the Roman rulers decided to allow the Jewish people to rebuild the Temple. Preliminary preparations were already under way for that glorious opportunity when the Kutim, usually identified with the Samaritan sect, confounded those plans. They maligned the Jews to the Romans and accused them of disloyalty. The permission to rebuild was revoked.

Having come so close to realizing this impossible dream, the Jews gathered in the valley of Beit Rimon with violent rebellion in their hearts. They clamored to march forth and rebuild the Temple in defiance of the Romans decree.

However, the more responsible leaders knew that such a provocation would meet with disastrous consequences. They sought for a respected figure, sufficiently wise and sufficiently persuasive, to calm the tempers of the masses and to quell the mutiny. They chose Rabbi Yehoshua ben Chananya for the task.

The Midrash quotes Rabbi Yehoshuas address in full detail. He used a fable as the basis of his argument:

A lion had just devoured its prey, but a bone of his victim was stuck in his throat. The lion offered a reward to anyone who would volunteer to insert his hand into his mouth to remove the bone. The stork volunteered, and thrust its long neck into the lions mouth and extracted the bone.

When the stork demanded his reward, the lion retorted, Your reward is that you can forevermore boast that you had thrust your head into a lions mouth and lived to tell the tale. Your survival is sufficient reward. So, too, argued Rabbi Yehoshua, our survival is our reward. We must surrender the hope of rebuilding our Temple in the interests of our national continuity. There are times when grandiose dreams must be foresworn so that survival can be assured.

Rav Reines argues that this combination of cleverness and insight was the result of Rabbi Yehoshuas mothers upbringing. He was chosen for this vital role because the other leaders knew of his talents, and perhaps even knew that his ability to calm explosive tempers and sooth raging emotions is something he learned from his mother, of whom none other than Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai had exclaimed, Happy is she who gave birth to him.

This wonderful insight of Rav Reines is important for us to remember, particularly those of us who are raising children. Psychologists have long stressed the vital roles that mothers play in child development. In our religion, we put much stress on the fathers role in teaching Torah to his children but we often underestimate and indeed sometimes forget the role of the mother.

We would do well to remember that Rav Reines is simply expanding upon G-ds own edict to Moses at the very inception of our history: Speak to the house of Jacob! Speak to the women as well as to the men.

Mothers, at least as much as fathers, are essential if we are to create a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

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Maternal influence a key in building a nation - The Jewish Star

It is no surprise that a Chief Rabbi would promote Jewish education, but Rabbi Lord Sacks took it to new heights. He gave an urgency to the issue in the way he publicly addressed the topic.

To defend a country, he would say, you need an army, but to defend a civilisation you need schools. Rabbi Sacks made such statements often, including in his maiden speech in the House of Lords.

Drawing a parallel between national security and schooling makes a stark point. A nation must invest in education with as much determination and resources as it does for its military might.

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Something I, and many of his students, have realised is how rooted all of Rabbi Sackss ideas were in Jewish sources. He had a unique way of expressing them in succinct and compelling ways that were equally accessible to Jew and non-Jew, religious and not. Yet, in his absence, I think it is valuable to uncover some of the rabbinic texts on which he drew. This one particularly so.

It says in the Jerusalem Talmud (Chagigah 1:7), Rabbi Yudan Nesia sent Rabbi Chiya, Rabbi Asi and Rabbi Ami to visit the cities of the Land of Israel They came to a certain place and did not find any Torah teachers there, so they said to the locals, Bring the defenders of the city to us.

Thecitys watchmen were brought out. The rabbis said, These are the defenders of the city? In fact, these are the destroyers of the city! Said the locals, Who then are the citys protectors? The rabbis responded, They are the teachers of Torah, as it is written, Unless God builds the house, its builders labour in vain on it; unless God watches over the city, the watchman keep vigil in vain. (Psalms 127:1).

The three rabbis were reminding the people of the city that it is foolish and dangerous to appoint security forces without also focussing on educational needs. If people are not taught the values and beliefs of their society then in times to come they will leave and disperse, and then there will be nothing left to defend.

The context of this story in the Jerusalem Talmud makes it abundantly clear that the very survival of our people is predicated on Jewish education.

Based on this perspective, Rabbi Sacks emphasised that the Jewish view of moral education was radically different to that of general society.

The modern educational approach is to present autonomous choices. Children are taught to articulate their personal preferences in a completely non-judgmental context. No way of life is to be advocated as better or worse than any other. But, wrote Rabbi Sacks in The Politics of Hope (p.176), this is not how we learn. It is not the way we learn anything, let alone the most important question of all, namely how to live. To learn any skill, as Aristotle noted, we need to see how master-practitioners practice their craft. We need to watch and imitate, at first clumsily, then with growing fluency and confidence.

He goes on to say that once a student is grounded in the Jewish tradition, then there is room for questioning, but first and foremost, education is the transmission of a tradition. We inherent it from our parents and pass it on to our children. There will be innovations and adaptations along the way, but if we love it then, says Rabbi Sacks, we will do so harmoniously, not destructively. In the end we are all but temporary guardians of our tradition. And, reading Rabbi Sacks, he still has much to teach us about it.

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OPINION: Rabbi Sacks taught us that education is a matter of life and death - Jewish News

BNEI BRAK, Israel -- Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 93, can't use a phone. He rarely leaves his house. His family says he has never been successful in making a cup of tea. His closest aides think he doesn't know the name of Israel's prime minister. He studies the Torah for, give or take, 17 hours a day.

Yet despite his seeming detachment from worldly life, Kanievsky has become one of the most consequential and controversial people in Israel today.

The spiritual leader of hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, Kanievsky has landed at the center of tensions over the coronavirus between the Israeli mainstream and its growing ultra-Orthodox minority.

Throughout the pandemic, authorities have clashed with the ultra-Orthodox over their resistance to anti-virus protocols, particularly their early refusal to close schools or limit crowds at religious events. Similar conflicts have played out in the New York area.

RABBI AT THE FORE

Kanievsky, issuing pronouncements from a book-filled study in his cramped apartment in an ultra-Orthodox suburb of Tel Aviv, has often been at the fore of that resistance. Twice, during the first and second waves of the pandemic in Israel, he rejected state-imposed anti-virus protocols and would not order his followers to close their yeshivas, independent religious schools where students gather in close quarters to study Jewish scripture.

"God forbid!" he exclaimed. If anything, he said, the pandemic made prayer and study even more essential.

Both times he eventually relented, and it is unlikely that he played as big a role in spreading the virus as he was accused of, but the damage was done.

Many public health experts say that the ultra-Orthodox -- who account for about 12% of the population but 28% of the coronavirus infections, according to Israeli government statistics -- have undermined the national effort against the coronavirus.

REACTION HAS BEEN FIERCE

The reaction has been fierce, much of it centered on Kanievsky.

The rabbi "must be arrested for spreading a disease," blared a column last week in Haaretz, a liberal newspaper. "This rabbi dictates the scandalous conduct in the ultra-Orthodox sector," said an article in Yedioth Ahronoth, a centrist news outlet.

The backlash exaggerates the rabbi's role and that of the ultra-Orthodox in general. Ultra-Orthodox society is not monolithic, and other prominent leaders were far quicker to comply with anti-virus regulations. Ultra-Orthodox leaders say the majority of their followers have obeyed the rules although their typically large families, living in tight quarters under what is now the third national lockdown, have inevitably contributed to the spread of the contagion.

Born in what is now Belarus in 1928, Kanievsky immigrated to what was then Palestine before World War II. He has spent most of his subsequent waking life studying Jewish texts, gradually building a following among the so-called Lithuanian Jews, a non-Hasidic sect of ultra-Orthodox Jews with eastern European roots who form roughly a third of the Haredim in Israel.

FILLED THE VACUUM

When the sect's previous leader died in 2017, Kanievsky was one of two senior rabbis who filled the vacuum, which gave him considerable authority over the sect as well as an ultra-Orthodox political party that now forms part of the government.

His pedigree adds to his prestige: his father and uncle were legendary spiritual leaders. But it is his relentless Torah study that gives the rabbi his authority -- his followers believe his encyclopedic knowledge of Jewish teachings endows him with a near-mystical ability to offer religious guidance.

"They see him as a holy man," said Eli Paley, chairman of the Haredi Institute for Public Affairs, a Jerusalem research group. "They see their existence as relying on Rabbi Chaim and his Torah learning."

On a recent afternoon in his apartment in the ultra-Orthodox enclave of Bnei Brak, Kanievsky appeared oblivious to the controversy raging around him. He sat silently at a small wooden table covered in a silvery tablecloth, surrounded by religious books. His wrinkled and reddened hands gripped a white book of scripture. Since rising before dawn, he had been studying the Chullin, a rabbinical text on the laws of ritual slaughter, and would continue to study late into the night.

'SUSTAINS THE WORLD'

"He believes the Torah sustains the world," said Yaakov Kanievsky, his 31-year-old grandson and the rabbi's main mediator with the outside world. "Without Torah learning, we don't have any reason to live. It's written in the Bible -- if you stop learning, the world will collapse."

For a few hours each day, Rabbi Kanievsky stops studying to take questions from his followers, who either put their requests in writing or pose them in person during visiting hours. Since the rabbi is hard of hearing, the questions are relayed by his grandsons, who shout them in the rabbi's ear and, when necessary, contextualize the questions and clarify their grandfather's terse, mumbled answers.

A few such exchanges at the start of the pandemic quickly gained national notoriety.

"There is now a great epidemic in the world, a disease called corona, and it affects many people," one grandson shouted in the rabbi's ear last year, after a question from a visitor, according to a video of the conversation. "He asks what they should take upon themselves so this disease does not get to them and there are no problems."

'LEARN TALMUD'

"They should learn Talmud," the rabbi whispered in response.

"The question is," Yaakov asked his grandfather on a separate occasion, "if grandfather thinks that they should close the schools because of this?"

"God forbid!" the rabbi replied.

In an interview, Yaakov Kanievsky, better known as Yanki, said that these brief clips don't tell the whole story. The rabbi, he said, has long complied with government policy.

"There are things that get misunderstood," Yanki Kanievsky said. "He takes [covid-19] very seriously, and he takes the patients very seriously."

Several weeks into the pandemic, the rabbi ordered his followers to obey social-distancing guidelines, even equating scofflaws to murderers. In June, he said masks were a religious obligation. In December, he gave his blessing to the vaccine, not long after recovering from the virus himself. In recent days he condemned a group of Haredi young people who clashed with police officers trying to enforce coronavirus regulations.

HE REVERSED HIMSELF

And he ultimately reversed himself on closing the yeshivas, which remain closed or under quarantine during the current lockdown.

"If you look at the news tonight, there will be one Haredi school open, and people will say, 'Oh, it's all Rabbi Kanievsky's fault,' " Yanki Kanievsky said. "But it's really not."

Yanki Kanievsky's dominant role in his grandfather's life has led to questions about who is really in charge, and whether Rabbi Kanievsky is alert enough to judge matters of national importance. Critics say the grandson controls who can and can't reach the grandfather -- even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not been granted the privilege of speaking with Rabbi Kanievsky directly.

The younger Kanievsky said that his grandfather is entirely his own man and that it would be impossible to influence him even if he tried. Everyone has the right to ask him anything -- they just have to line up and wait their turn.

"I can't tell the rabbi what to say," Yanki Kanievsky said. "If he thinks I'm trying to manipulate him, I am finished."

But without speaking to the rabbi directly, it is hard to know exactly what he thinks. As the interview with Yanki Kanievsky drew to close, we asked for a final audience with the rabbi.

Yanki Kanievsky shook his head. Rabbi Kanievsky was taking a nap.

The home of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, whose pronouncements have made him one of the most controversial figures in Israel today, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Jan. 24, 2021. Kanievsky is the spiritual authority for hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, but his pronouncements on the coronavirus have made him a villain to many. (Dan Balilty/The New York Times)

Yaakov Kanievsky, left, listens to a familys request for a blessing before repeating it to his grandfather, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, at his home in Bnei Brak, Israel, Jan. 24, 2021. Rabbi Kanievsky is the spiritual authority for hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, but his pronouncements on the coronavirus have made him a villain to many. (Dan Balilty/The New York Times)

Followers of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky line up at his home to receive a blessing or to ask questions, which he answers for a few hours a day, in Bnei Brak, Israel, Jan. 24, 2021. Kanievsky is the spiritual authority for hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, but his pronouncements on the coronavirus have made him a villain to many. (Dan Balilty/The New York Times)

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, center, whose pronouncements have made him one of the most controversial figures in Israel today, with his grandson Yaakov Kanievsky, at the rabbi's home in Bnei Brak, Israel, Jan. 24, 2021. Kanievsky is the spiritual authority for hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews, but his pronouncements on the coronavirus have made him a villain to many. (Dan Balilty/The New York Times)

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Prince of the Torah - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Isolation. Fear. Grief. It is an unfortunate truth that Jewish history gives us a deep understanding of the same difficulties we are all experiencing during this time of COVID. But our tradition was forged as a powerful response to the very hardships that can plague us.

Huddled together at the edge of the Promised Land, the Torah envisions a people who easily could have been resigned to their fate, or prayed for things to be different, or waited for someone to save them.

Instead, we the inheritors of that moment are reminded that the ultimate responsibility is ours: I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day: I have put before you life and death, blessing and curse choose life! (Deuteronomy 30:19).

I am deeply honored that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed me to the newly formed Protect Michigan Commission. Along with a wide range of faith, business, medical and civic leaders, our task is to help encourage our friends and neighbors to take the critical step of getting a vaccine as soon as it is available to them. It will take each one of us to ensure that 70% of Michiganders over the age of 16 are vaccinated, a vital threshold that will allow all of us to emerge from this pandemic.

To some, it may seem obvious. But this Commission was necessary because we know that there is a significant percentage of Americans expressing vaccine hesitancy. There are lots of explanations for this some reasonable (unsure if a vaccine developed so quickly will be safe or effective) and some not reasonable (the vaccine is going to change your DNA or implant a tracking chip inside you).

Many in our community have already been vaccinated, and even more are lined up to receive theirs. But for anyone who may be dubious, I would respectfully offer two guidelines.

First, Jewish tradition has long required us to maintain our health as a pathway to spiritual truth. The great sage Maimonides, himself a physician, taught more than 800 years ago that medical care is an obligation, not a choice, so that we might continue to fulfill our highest purpose on Earth. In fact, the Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 16b) goes so far as to forbid crossing an unstable bridge putting ourselves at unnecessary risk is a violation of Jewish law!

Just as important, to me, is the notion of communal responsibility. The entire Book of Deuteronomy could be read as a statement about how our own actions affect those around us. It is not that you or I will be blessed or cursed it is that you and I and all of us together will be blessed or cursed, depending on the righteous actions of our entire community.

That is the challenge of today. If you are hesitating about getting the vaccine, doctors and scientists are clear that it is worse to go without it. And even if that isnt enough, do it for the sake of your friends, your family, those in your synagogue or at work, or even those you dont know. I pray that 2021 will be the year in which all of us stand united in choosing to be vaccinated in choosing life!

Rabbi Mark Miller is senior rabbi of Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township.

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Guest Column: Choosing an End to COVID | The Jewish News - The Jewish News

A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

In the latest edition of the Brooklyn Jewish journal Hakirah, there is a fascinating article on Rav Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903 -1993) by David. P. Goldman, entitled The Ravs Uncompleted Grand Design. Goldman himself is a Renaissance man an economist, a musicologist, an expert on China, a scholar. But this blog is about JB, as Rav Soloveitchik was affectionately known. There were two great men who had a profound impact on American Jewry during the past century, the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Rav Soloveitchik. They represented the different major streams of Orthodoxy in our times.

Rav Soloveitchik was born on February 27, 1903, in Eastern Europe. He came from one of its greatest rabbinical dynasties, known as Brisk. After an intensive Talmudic education, he went on to graduate from Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin with a Ph.D. in epistemology and metaphysics. In 1932, he emigrated to the US. He settled in Boston and took up a rabbinical position. In 1941, he began to teach the main Talmud class at Yeshiva University. He ordained some 2,000 rabbis in his career, and his lectures attracted thousands of devotees. He was held in enormous respect by everyone. He died in 1993.

His two most widely read publications areThe Lonely Man of FaithandHalakhic Man arguably the most significant philosophical analyses of Jewish religious ideology in our times. His unique approach was a combination of European phenomenological philosophy with mysticism and religious experience. His profound rational analysis overlaid a deep commitment to study and religious practice in the context of individual commitment. Unusually, among the Eastern European rabbis who came to America, he was a passionate Zionist and a strong advocate of womens education at the highest level. He was a proponent of Torah UMadda, Torah study, and secular wisdom. Intellectually and academically, he stood head and shoulders above the rest.

My contact with him was only through his writing. And it came as a surprise to read in Goldmans essay, this quote attributed to the great man. In lamenting the state of much of rabbinic leadership and the lack of passion for religious life, he said:

February 5, 2021 12:13 pm

And therefore, I affirm that I can identify one of those responsible for the present situation and that is none other than myself. I have not fulfilled my obligation as a guide in Israel. I seem to have lacked the ability-the personal power-required of a teacher and Rav or perhaps I lacked some of the desire to fulfill the role completely and I did not devote myself completely to the task my students have received much Torah learning from me and their intellectual standing has strengthened-but I have not seen much growth on the experiential plane. I have fallen short as one who spreads the Torah of the heart.

I was stunned by his humility and honesty. He was no more a failure than Moses, who also was very strong and yet humble, a modest man who struggled throughout his life with his mission. Anyone involved in teaching, advocating, and fighting for a cause, must feel a profound sense of failure sometimes, for not living up to ones own expectations. Similarly, anyone with any sense of introspection must inevitably think that he or she could have done more to inspire and to achieve. But what did he mean by the present situation?

In every society, there is a huge gap between the intellectual thinkers and the masses who are not. Most people anywhere are superstitious and credulous. They have little time for grand ideas but simply struggle to cope with life and making the best of it

It was to these people that Hasidism spoke when it emerged in the 17th century. Then too, there was a huge divide between those like the brilliant Vilna Gaon, the academic Lithuanian intellectual who was a Talmudist, mathematician, and mystic, and the early Hasidic masters who spoke to the simple uneducated people who needed a Rebbe for guidance and to speak to God on their behalf.

These are two very distinct models of leadership, the popular and the elite. This is the dichotomy that the two great rabbis of the previous generation represent. Lubavitch Hasidism brings Judaism to the masses. Their emissaries cater for and speak to the ordinary person or for those who are lost and searching. Their fundamentalism is a comfortable safety zone that helps them deal with the practical preoccupations of every Jew.

On the other side, you have the Lithuanian, Yeshivish rigorous standards of the academy with more of an emphasis on individuality; Soloveitchik, on the other hand expected all his pupils to rise to the heights. He was addressing those already committed who wanted more. What is depressing is the current Lithuanian rejection of the scientific. Perhaps that is where Rav Soloveitchik felt his elitism was being overwhelmed, with conformity as anti-intellectualism having taken a firm grip on large parts of the Orthodox world.

Different times call for different responses. Perhaps we have needed the conformist, social Judaism, while we rebuild Jewish life after the Holocaust. But it has come at a price of producing a leadership dominated by a gerontocracy of cloistered men of incredible learning yet out of touch with reality. Our leaders seem like rabbits blinded by the headlamps of a car, unable to see that their policies and fundamentalism are not equipping millions to cope with the challenges of modernity. But if, on the other hand, you encourage intellectual thought and individualism as Rav Soloveitchik did, you cannot expect to create a movement of blind loyalty and obedience willing to march at one persons command.

There is much to criticize in the Orthodox world today. Yet is our situation that bad? There are moreJews than ever before studying Torah, committed to religious life by choice, rather than circumstances. There are more religious academics producing quality work on philosophy, history, and the whole gamut of intellectual activity. Compared to the paucity I knew as a young man, the pool of talent in Jewish religious life has swelled beyond imagination. I cannot be pessimistic.

Rav Soloveitchik was committed to Torah in all its majesty, which transcends human social manipulation and anodyne placebos. He has continued to inspire both through his late great son-in-law Rav Aaron Lichtenstein and the Yeshivah Har Etzion in Israel, where his grandson reigns. It might not be a legacy of Facebook friends and clicks, but it is all the more profound and long-lasting for that.

Rav Soloveitchik was fearless. He could stand up to the hard right and the zealots. Unlike most rabbis nowadays, he was not frightened of offending. He would never compromise his beliefs. He was not interested in power or fame. He set an amazing example in the words of the prophet Micah, of walking humbly with God. They dont make them like that anymore.

There is a lovely story told about Rav Soloveitchik that one day someone asked him for a blessing. Now, Hasidic Rebbes and Kabbalists are constantly being asked to give blessings to heal, to find a wife, to succeed in business. Rav Soloveitchik was a rationalist, a mystic, and a halakhist. He did not believe in giving meaningless blessings. When he was asked for one he replied: A blessing? Why? Are you an apple?

The author is a writer and commentator currently living in New York.

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Remembering a Great Rabbi Who Asked Questions Rather Than Answering Them - Algemeiner

Four figures a man, a woman, and two boys approach Moses. They havent seen their son-in-law, husband, father since he went to Egypt to confront Pharaoh, but they have heard all about what God did for Moses and for Israel. Put yourself in their places. How must they be feeling? Do the two boys even remember their father? Do they worry that he wont remember them? Are they awed by the stories about their dad? Are they anxious, shy, excited? Do they not know what to expect?

And Zipporah, Moses wife: Has she dressed up so that Moses will be awed at her beauty, as he was when they first met? Is she excited? Is she hesitant? So much time has passed. Will she still know her husband or will they be like strangers meeting for the first time?

The Torah says nothing of any of this. We must fill out the scene, using our imagination to step inside each characters mind, reading between and behind the lines to their thoughts. All the Torah says is this: Moses went out to meet his father-in-law; he bowed low and kissed him; each asked after the others welfare, and they went into the tent. (Exodus 18:7)

Consider what this implies. Yitro, Moses father-in-law, his sons Gershom and Eliezer, and Zippora are all mentioned by name. Yet, Moses greets only his father-in-law, kissing him and taking him into the tent. Moses, it seems, turns his back on the others, leaving them standing there alone. What must that have felt like to his wife and children? How much pain and confusion must they have felt?

Parashat Yitro is often discussed as a Torah portion about leadership. It is a story about giving, and more importantly taking, advice. Yitro teaches Moses to delegate, proposing a model that has been emulated in judicial systems and institutional structuring ever since. Moses demonstrates how to begin to bring together a people around a new vision, as one society committed to shared ideals and values. The portion teaches many lessons about how to implement change and build a nation or organization.

Why then does it begin with this scene of Moses ignored family?

Perhaps it is because we all too often fall into the same leadership trap as Moses. Our lives are so busy and our responsibilities of such importance that we ignore the people we love the most. We are working so many hours that we miss family activities, meals, bedtimes, or weekends. Even if we are physically present, we are often so stressed and exhausted that were unable to emotionally connect. And when we are at home together or around the same table, we are still each on our own devices, in our own personal worlds. We place our professional obligations ahead of the needs of our families. We forget to stop and focus on one another.

Centuries after he stood before Pharaoh and with his people at Mount Sinai, Moses is deliberately sidelined by the rabbis who created the Passover Haggadah. Despite his leadership role, Moses is written out of the Exodus story and the redemption narrative as we recall it at the Passover Seder. Why? One answer is that our sages wanted to ensure that we remember that God performed the miracles of deliverance for our ancestors not Moses. At Passover, we are to focus on God as the source of our freedom.

But there may be another reason Moses is left out. More so than any other holiday, we associate Passover and the Seder with family. Since that first Passover celebration in Egypt, when the Israelites were commanded to gather to celebrate their imminent escape from slavery, Passover has been the holiday of family gatherings. Many Jews earliest memories include gathering around the Passover table, different generations interacting with each other.

Perhaps Moses is not at the table with all when we recall the Exodus because when it comes to matters of family, Moses is no role model. At the central Jewish celebration involving family, there is simply no place for Moses and the all-too-familiar leadership paradigm he puts forth in Parashat Yitro.

Our tradition makes us aware that there were not just immediate consequences for Zipporah, Gershom, and Eliezer in our story. There were long-term consequences for Moses, too. When we ignore our families, they arent the only ones hurt. We hurt ourselves, as well. Our rabbis make this point by taking Moses out of the story, giving him no credit in the Passover Haggadah for his leadership.

Moses family life is a challenge to each of us. Can we bridge the tension between our families and our work? Imagine how much more complete Moses would have been as a leader if he had been able to incorporate into his understanding of Israelite society the excitement, fear, shyness, and love his wife and sons were feeling. Imagine if Moses had personally opened up and shared his dreams with them, letting them into his spiritual and emotional life. Wouldnt they all have been more fulfilled? Wouldnt his legacy have been even more fully remembered and sustained?

May we each learn to appreciate and embrace the importance of our family, even as we engage our passions for our work and our leadership. So may it be Gods will and our own!

Read this Torah portion, Exodus 18:1 20:23 on Sefaria

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About the Author: Rabbi Michelle Fisher is the executive director of MIT Hillel. She has also worked as a congregational rabbi on both coasts and served in the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps. Prior to her ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary, she earned a masters degree in Chemistry from MIT.

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Parashat Yitro: On Leadership and Family - My Jewish Learning

These are uncertain times, but if you want to find out what your future has in store keep up to date with our daily horoscope forecasts and astrology readings.

TODAYS MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE:

A person who seeks help for a friend, while needy himself, will be answered first. The Talmud

TODAYS WISDOM FROM AROUND THE WORLD:

Happiness is like a sunbeam, which the least shadow intercepts, while adversity is often as the rain of spring. Chinese Proverb

TODAYS CHINESE PROVERB:

Common sense goes further than a lot of learning.

FOR THOSE OF US BORN ON THIS DAY:

Happy Birthday! The months ahead are likely to start on a slightly unsettling note, thanks to unhelpful influences, which will have you feeling a little dissatisfied with your current lot, especially in terms of work or school. The changes youll need to make wont necessarily be easy, but once youve tackled them youll feel much happier. There will be more challenges from the planets in terms of romance; summer will be more of a low point, followed swiftly by a very fulfilling fall, where everything will seem to fall into place. Singles are likely to meet someone very special in November! The New Year will see you needing to address a noticeable balance between work/school and your personal relationships.

Yesterdays muddled thoughts will recede significantly, but one related matter may linger on throughout the day. Dont believe everything you hear: its not a day for overt or direct action; its more a day to stand back and observe, since theres an emphasis on a revelation or a communication!

Todays Numbers: 3, 14, 21, 30, 36, 42

A cooler-headed vibe has the capacity to bring the focus back to the present so you can concentrate on personal matters. That said; it may be wise to get ahead of yourself on the domestic front. This is because you may well encounter a minor interruption or glitch; one which you perhaps hadnt anticipated!

Todays Numbers: 7, 15, 28, 33, 37, 46

A marginally fretful vibe may highlight an inconvenient matter. If its something that youve forgotten, then deal with it as soon as possible. However; if its something more subtle or internal, such as a concern or worry, then it may be a wise to leave it until Sunday at least!

Todays Numbers: 1, 5, 14, 20, 39, 43

A calmer vibe has the capacity to provide a generally soothing mood for most water signs. That said; the need for an overhaul or change may need to be kept in perspective, since this desire will be largely driven by the temporary impact of the moon. Keep things light for the next couple of days!

Todays Numbers: 7, 12, 26, 32, 37, 48

Theres a slightly clumsy vibe at large. Do take care with verbal communications in particular, since a slip of the tongue could divulge something you did not intend to reveal. Dont be in too much of a hurry to jump to conclusions too quickly, because its possible that youll get something slightly wrong!

Todays Numbers: 9, 14, 21, 30, 36, 42

Today is likely to be a little less sparkling, but highly beneficial. It may not be the best time for beginning new projects or embarking on creative ventures, but it is an excellent day to tie up any loose ends, especially when it comes to one specific and possibly confusing matter!

Todays Numbers: 3, 7, 12, 23, 38, 47

A rather unreliable Jupiter/moon mix is likely to imbue you with all good intentions and then block the way with minor glitches. There is only so much that you can do. By the same token; it may be too easy to get too caught up in someone elses dramas and problems!

Todays Numbers: 4, 11, 20, 29, 36, 43

A more reliable planetary vibe could help close a possible communication gap. In particular, a misunderstanding in romantic matters can be resolved quite smoothly on both sides. In general, if you can take advantage of the warmer undercurrent, you may just see something in an improved light!

Todays Numbers: 7, 15, 28, 37, 39, 45

Although it may feel like a wishy-washy day, tomorrow will reignite the fun element and will liven up a few other signs too, so for now, dont overdo anything that youre likely to regret. Specifically; there could be one very minor flashpoint to avoid, smooth over or reverse!

Todays Numbers: 2, 18, 21, 30, 36, 44

Its a great day to act on previous decisions, since the generally reliable vibe will help you to adapt vaguer ideas and plans into definite ones. That said; its perhaps not a great day for decisive action. Nor will it be a good idea to try and micro-manage a romantic matter!

Todays Numbers: 3, 7, 13, 20, 39, 44

Its a day where you might end up questioning recent strategies and tactics, especially if they havent worked as well as you had hoped. You may also wonder if you have perhaps veered off track. However; as with many other signs, its not a day to act on temporary doubt. Wait until tomorrow at least!

Todays Numbers: 5, 11, 20, 29, 33, 47

A subtly gentle vibe has the capacity to reverse a marginally negative misunderstanding: this is likely to revolve around an emotional or support matter. Perhaps the air will be cleared or an understanding reached. Its also possible that you receive some good or helpful news too!

Todays Numbers: 6, 13, 28, 32, 36, 44

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CELEBRITIES BORN ON THIS DAY:

Famous people born on your birthday include:Pamela Franklin, David Brenner, Lisa Eichhorn, Oscar De La Hoya, Brandon Bug Hall, Natalie Imbruglia, Bug Hall, Clint Black, Alice Cooper, Dan Quayle

CELEBRITY GOSSIP:

Sienna Miller has been drawing attention to the difficulty faced by women actors in Hollywood trying to find challenging roles. However, the planets are going to be bringing Sienna some very positive news on the career front in the next month or so!

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Lucky Numbers and Horoscopes for today, 4 February 2021 - The London Economic

Parshat Yitro contains the foundational experience on which all of Judaism rests the revelation at Sinai. We repeat this section twice annually: this week, during the reading of the Torah, and in a few months on the festival of Shavuot, when we calendrically relive those events.

Our tradition always pairs the Torah reading with a haftarah that thematically parallels the primary reading. When challenged to find the analogue to Sinai, our Sages chose prophetic readings that dealt with the personal revelatory experiences of great prophets: Isaiah for Yitro, and Ezekiel for Shavuot. However, the two readings are starkly different: Isaiahs description of his angelic dedication to prophecy is terse and almost matter of fact, while the opening chapter of Ezekiel is lush with detail, with an almost hallucinogenic tint to Ezekiels breathless verbal rendering of the mind-altering experience of revelation.

The Talmud is aware of this strange dichotomy, and offers the following intriguing distinction:

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Rava said: All that Ezekiel saw, Isaiah saw as well. To what may Ezekiel be compared? To a villager who saw the king. And to what may Isaiah be compared? To a city-dweller who saw the king (Chagigah 13b).

Rava teaches that while the experience that both prophets beheld was identical, the presentation of them in scripture is quite different, just as two viewers of the same royal retinue may describe what happened to them differently. Maimonides in his philosophical work The Guide for the Perplexed, suggests that the city-dweller and villager are similes reflecting different levels of spiritual development, and that Isaiah was on a mystically superior level to Ezekiel.

Strikingly, the Maharsha (R. Shlomo Eideles, 16th-century Poland) does not understand this as a simile, but rather as a biographical observation about both prophets. Isaiah grew up in Jerusalem as a royal relative, while Ezekiel, according to the Maharsha, was a native of the village of Anatot. (This seems to be predicated on a Midrashic tradition that teaches that Ezekiel was a close relative of the prophet Jeremiah, who the Tanakh does indeed identify as a native of Anatot.) While the mystical revelation was indeed identical, the sophisticated and aristocratic Isaiah described it in a subtle, understated fashion, while Ezekiels rural and more humble origins, untouched by the pomp and circumstance of the royal court, led him to describe the angelic vision in a much more excited, almost naive way.

This observation about the perception of revelation is relevant for the Torah as a whole. Torah and the system of halacha makes objective demands of every Jew, which are identical. How we experience those mitzvot, though, is a highly personalized experience, and God expects us to observe His normative commands in a way that binds us to him filtered through the unique lens of our own experience.PJC

Rabbi Daniel Yolkut is the spiritual leader of Congregation Poale Zedeck. This column is a service of the Vaad Harabanim of Greater Pittsburgh.

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Yitro contains the foundational experience on which all of Judaism rests - thejewishchronicle.net

In the book of Deuteronomy, the final of the Five Books of Moses, there are two seemingly contradictory verses that describe the tension between a world of aspiration and a world with people in need.

First, There shall be no needy among you (Deuteronomy 14:4-5). Gods desire of humankind is to work toward creating and living a vision where no one will suffer. Second, and more practically, There will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy. (Deuteronomy 15:11). As much as there is a genuine yearning to create an equitable world where no one will suffer, getting there may be impossible. At the same time, though it is not upon us to complete the task, neither are we free to ignore this sacred work.

The pandemic has magnified the deepening gaps that exist in our world. Yes, its true that we have all experienced tremendous loss over the last year. The loss of life and livelihood is real, not to mention a heightened sense of loneliness and isolation. Even more poignant are the growing inequities that exist between people based on gender, class and race. While, perhaps, we have crossed the midway point where a glimmer of light has emerged, there is something we can all do right now to illuminate the darkness.

One of my favorite teachings in Jewish tradition comes from the Talmud. We sustain all people, we care for the sick, and we bury the dead, regardless of our faiths or differences, for the sake of peace. We show up for and expand our universe of obligation to collectively move the needle to make change. As a solidarity cohort of more than 40 faith leaders from a wide range of religious and spiritual traditions in San Mateo County, we know how difficult it is to serve right now and we are grateful to so many people who have prioritized working in service of others. The COVID-19 pandemic has taught us that we are all only as safe as the most vulnerable among us. People are hurting; some struggling simply to survive. As the truth of our interdependence becomes ever clearer, these times are calling us to respond with courage and compassion in preserving the safety and well-being of all people in our community. As our cohort continues to work toward our vision of creating a more moral San Mateo County, we are asking all of our fellow siblings to join us in an intentional action to help one another.

Recently, and perhaps again in the near future, many of us have received stimulus funds to help make a small dent during these trying and unprecedented times. If these funds can help you or your family, we hope that they can ease your burden, even if only temporarily. And for those of you who received your funds and can pay them forward, we call on you to expand your universe of obligation for the sake of peace.

The Peninsula Solidarity Cohort is partnering with local organizations like Samaritan House and Second Harvest that are part of Thrive, the Alliance of Nonprofits for San Mateo County, to help us start at the local level. Our goal is to keep our neighbors in need fed, clothed, housed and healthy, so that all can survive the pandemic, rebuild our economy and preserve our community. If there is another local or even global organization that speaks to your heart, consider giving some or all of you stimulus payment to help someone else in need.

Though it saddens me that we will probably never achieve the vision that God had in mind of creating a world without need, I truly believe that what God wants for us is to never stop trying. Through this lens, caring for the needy in our midst and working to build a more equitable and just world, is a sacred responsibility that transcends time. For in doing so, we will not only be able to once again see the dignity and worth in every one of Gods creations, we will bring ourselves one step closer to a world of wholeness and peace.

Corey Helfand is the senior rabbi at Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City and a member of the Peninsula Solidarity Cohort, a coalition of interfaith leaders working for the common good in San Mateo County. For local giving, visit Samaritan House at samaritanhousesanmateo.org, Second Harvest Food Bank at shfb.org, or for other nonprofits in the Thrive alliance, visit thrivealliance.org and search under membership nonprofits.

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Expanding our universe of obligation | Guest Perspectives | smdailyjournal.com - San Mateo Daily Journal