Heart-labeled religious books.

This is some mystery. These are just some of religious books that I have seen marked with a heart. My grandfather's 1950's Mipi Olelim at the bottom, on top of the modern-day edition.
The books I have checked so far are Talmud, Mishanyos, siddurim. But nobody knows why the heart. Maybe it is something to do with the life in the diaspora, to mark a religious book with a special but non-specific symbol. To avoid the probing eye of an antisemitic authority.

A Sober Way Of Looking At Hassidism and Ethics

Hassidus, or hassidic movements started in 17th century, as a result of Cossack pogroms in Poland and Ukraine, which was a part of it. Also due to a Jewish false Messiah phenomenon of Shabtay Tzvi. 

Jewish life was of grueling work in poverty, and in fear for one's life, and not even safe to move within a village. The rabbinic leaders introduced song and dance to brighten up Jewish life, and were the nearly only ones to learn Torah, leaving the average followers to sing and dance, and admire the rebbe (not coincidentally in Hebrew such a rebbe is really called an Admor, an acronym, which they don't know that in Yiddish also alludes to someone to admire. (Adoneinu, Moreinu, Rabeinu - our master, our teacher, our rabbi)

The hassidim developed a Sephardic liturgical rite, abandoned the original Ashkenaz rite, added the clothing styles of the host Polish or Ukrainian villages, and accounts of near magic deeds and talents of their Admor's dynasty. And they nearly abandoned the yeshiva as the basis of learning. So in effect, hassidus became the first reform movement(s).

Every hassidic sect bravely teaches mysticism and things like afterlife included.

The mainstream, or mainstay Judaism, called Litvishe, is based on everyone learning Torah, which includes oral tradition, which of course includes Ethics, or Mussar (מוסר, not мусор, garbage in Russian, as some Hasidim say humorously). This Mussar learning starts with the famous Pirkey Avos printed in every prayer book. Mussar is or was taught at these yeshivas in Jewish-defined Lithuania, which includes Lithuania proper (Vilna, Mir, Ponevezh), Slabodka, Novhorodok and Slonim (Belarus), Brisk (Brest Litovsk, Belarus-Ukraine-Poland), and Zhitomir (Ukraine). Jews born in Central Europe  naturally choose to associate with the Lithuanian observance and rite, which is practically the same as the notable law authorities at the Pressburg Yeshiva (Bratislava), such as Nodeh BiYehuda and Hatam Sofer.

Other Litvishe authorities are not necessarily from Eastern Europe, since the rule is to go and learn from the brightest Jewish law rabbi. The names like Yakov Emden( a.k.a. Yabetz, see the blog label), Nodeh BiYehuda, Hatam Sofer all from Central Europe, the famous Litvishe authority called Hagro, and Shaagas Aryeh ( see the blog label), who ventured all over Europe, and upbraided many communities and their leaders.

Later significant authorities are the famous Chofetz Hayim, Moshe Feinstein (Belarus-Russia-USA) - the source for all American and the rest of Ashkenazis, and Shlomo Zalman Oyerbach, the source of law for all Ashkenazim in Israel, which may include R. Feinstein. Other great and later authroties are R. Soloveichik, R. Hutner, R. Sorotzkin, and R. Aharon Kotler.

The reminder to learn quetly at a Hagro shul.

So the Litvishe are a low key, quiet observant Jews who are following the principles as I defined in the 3 Principles below, know Tora and talmud well, are very skeptical about the hassidic superstitions, tales, cultish shenanigans, and are boring, compared to hassidic song and dance shpiels. So hassidim stick out, and demonstratively hijack Jewish heritage, sometimes teaching the unlearned that their particular village is the only true inheritor and even to say that their Eastern European traditions originate from the Revelation at Mount Sinai.

The hassidim stick out in USA, of course. The natural attraction works, and the American girls influx at the Neveh girl's prep school, obviously influenced its ideology. It used to be a rational Litvishe prep school, and what is heard means it is more fun studying there if more hassidic concepts are being taught. Another of their concepts is something they dug out from mysticism, that in the 17th century they somehow received the gift of the feminine heart, and this is the Hasidim's attraction for and from women and homosexuals. it's enough to note the wedding and commercial songs sung by men in soprano voices, or even entire boys' choir sounding as a flock of little girls.

Of course nobody knows about afterlife, and according to the mainstream/mainstay authorities, nobody has the right to tell a girl/young woman - not one's daughter - about afterlife, or such concepts. Sadly many open-minded girls fall for the charismatic mystics who turn out to be molesters, abusers, manipulators, con artists and their wives/assistants.

So a hassidic women's school would push for a narrow minded dogma, where electronics are mystically evil; all the while a Litvishe school would teach a woman its rational, analytical thought, and sometimes dry Jewish practical law (kashrus, shabbos, children's education, and practical specialties like CPA, graphic design, computer/web engineering, or special ed.)

Hassidim rely on learning Torah for its mysterious, charismatic value, as if it is a mass effort to impress themselves and the mass of non-osbervant Jews with their Admor's deeds of near-hocus-pocus miracles.

A Hassid supervisor 

To give Hassidim credit: they preserved the Jewish practices from Eastern Europe, they insist on saving and speaking Yiddish, and they point out that working for a living is a divinely permitted by Torah. That is seen at the diamond exchanges in NYC, Belgium and Israel. Most of Litvishe Jews try to learn full time, almost 18 hours a day, based on the precept of Toroso Emunaso ("Torah is His Profession").

The three main concepts of Litvishe ethics

Litvishe principles below have been confirmed by a mashgiach (councellor) of the Pachad Itzhak yeshiva, Har Nof:

1. "What is this? Who am I?" the equivalent of Yiddish Shayach nisht - “not for me, does not belong to me”

What is this - is this for me? Who am I to need this? To want this? Do I know enough to say/do things on an impulse? Am I ready for the consequences? Can I be responsible afterwards?
Based on these Torah concepts: Guard your eyes, Do Not Covet, How to Reproach

2. Do not do any holy deeds at someone else’s expense, whether they know it or not.

Not to ask less observant, non-observant, ignorant, or gentiles to perform tasks which free you up to perform liturgical functions, spiritual endeavors, strictures, etc.

Women who due to political ideologies want to demonstratively pray the men's ritual, among men, or even among women, should not embarrass the mainstream women.

based on Torah concepts:

Pirkey Avos - Separate yourself from the government: do not accept government money, do not get involved with party, government, etc, and do not let yourself, your family, your community be influenced by parties, government, political favors, rewards, reforms

Do not do anything to anyone that you don't want to be done to you.

Love your neighbor (re’akha), first of all means your neigh (old English nearest dear one), like the wife, but not a geographic neighbor.

Darkeyo Darkey Noam vNativoteyo Shalom -Mishley -(Torah ways must be pleasant, with no inconveniences, crudeness, negativity, deceit).

3. Do not do anything you don’t understand: no mysticism, no charismatic movements, no Chassidus, no new rituals, procedures, rites, symbols. We have no prophets, no messengers, or men of clairvoyance to introduce amulets, rites, recitations. Secrets are juxtaposed to learning the Torah as explicitly taught to us, and are the tools for manipulating the less learned.

Challenge and analyze rulings, even the recent ones i.e. from the past 200 years (as expressed by Hagra and his brother)

Mitzva observance must be consistent, peaceful, and enjoyable

based on Torah concepts:

Be innocent before your God (Tiyu tmimim lifney Hashem elokekha).

You shall learn this Torah.

Torah is not in heaven, or beyond the seas, for you to venture far, it is in on the tip of your tongue.

a ruling from the son of R' Yakov Emden

Chacham Tzvi, the son of R. Yakov Emden, ruled that Jews who do not reside in the land of Israel and stay there even temporarily should keep 1 day of a holiday. I heard that Chabad follow this psak.

Early Passover notes

a discussion on kneidlach is in Mishno Beruroh, Shaarey Teshuvoh 453 results in a ruling: the eating of Shmuro Matzoh is not yehuroh (a religious showoff).

there in MB 461, and also in Emeq Tzadikim, R. Yakov Emden, ob"m, reproached someone for abstaining from sugar and coffee because Toiroh commands us with vsamachtoh b'chagechoh (you should enjoy your holidays).

Respect thy forefathers' accent

Sure, it feels good to speak Israeli Hebrew. To read Maqor Rishon, or Maqor Chayyim. To pronounce Tav without a dagesh as Tav. To go from L'hoidois to L'hodot. Maybe it feels better to daven the local Sephardi pronunciation as well.

Sure, all other languages are not holy and mundane. We are living in Geula (not Geula the part of Jerusalem).
Eliezer Ben Yehuda, the author of the modern Hebrew grammar, was so happy to be here that he, paradoxically, severely beat his family members when they slipped and spoke a word of Yiddish!

The pronunciation is not worth family violence here. There is no holiness in changing one's accent just to comply with the politically correct trends.

The straight and honest holocho menayseh is that ashkenoizim must keep their pronunciation. The saintly and revered, the Israeli R. Shlomo Zalman Auerbach said so, V'olehu Lo Ibul, Part 1, Opinion 44.

A Shabtai Tzvi legacy

We all almost automatically say Boruch Hu boruch Shmoy (when hearing the first part of a brocho). This is a rarely discussed minhag. We are supposed to learn and understand every minhag that we follow. Yiddishkeit is a faith based on thinking.

Jews in Europe had one good reason for not responding this to brochos they heard.

Beside the fact that this expression is never mentioned in Gemoro, and Rosh mentions this by a way of learning that if someone is being yotzey on a brocho, responding Boruch Hu is a problematic interruption of the brocho .

Turns out that in Makor Boruch (Toroh Tmimoh, R. Epshtein of Pinsk, lehavdil, the shtetl of Shimon Peres), that the fanatics of the Shabtai Tzvi movement loved to say Boruch Hu Boruch Shmo because its full gematria is equal to the gematria of his name, 814.

Whoever is bothered by this fact is naturally free from the obligation to keep saying the response to blessings.

As Mesillas Yoshorim teaches in the Cleanliness chapter that one should be free of dubious practices.

Real rabbis please stand up

A more ethics-oriented answer to the fanaticism (The anti-whig, The Beit Shemesh Burka: Extreme Tznius (modesty) phenomena would (and should) be based on Jewish ethics teachings. They are mostly ignored by the stricture-obsessed amateurs. They ignorance is exacerbated by the lack of continuous contact with a real rabbi. Most amateurs satisfy their spiritual needs through listening to rhetorical, moving speeches by rabbis who are not really teaching Jewish ethics to families members. Most of Jewish inspirational philosophies and lectures gravitate towards preaching-to-the-choir topics like critique or admiration of the Israeli government, disdain for the Diaspora, and loose-ended, interpret-for-yourself quotes from Talmud.

Chofetz Chaim, R. Moshe Feinstein, R. Grodzinsky, R. Shlomo Zalman Oyerbach, R. Neuwirth, the real gdoilim, have always taught ethics over externalities. Hazon Ish, so frequently stereotyped as the source of strict rulings, was in reality a real practicing ben toyra. During his early years in the Land of Israel he did not look as stereotypically religious as the rest of the locals, who actually asked him if he learned at all. (He answered in our most beloved mama loshn language , "Ven Ich hob tzeit, lern sich," "When I have time, I learn.")

The solutions, however, would never come from Jewish leaders, columnists, media darlings and rabbis who use the terminology of "pulpit", "sermon". etc. The solution is sticking to the close, organic, classic reltionship of rabbis and their immediate surroundings, and steering away from the new and fashionable lecture circuits, rabbinical radio shows, adn political rallies spiced with provoking thoughts from Talmud.

(in response to a friend's sending me To tell or not to tell, that is the question
Stewart Weiss , THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 30, 2008)

It's the season for Orthodox scandal. From New York to
Jerusalem, from Beit Shemesh to Melbourne, shocking
tales of adultery and child abuse, infidelity and
incest within the Jewish world are making front-page
headlines. The latest incidents - a well-known cantor
caught in the act of adultery; a mother of eight
beating her two youngest to the point of
hospitalization, with no recovery predicted for the
toddler; a mother of 12, practicer and preacher of an
extreme form of female modesty, allegedly whipping and
humiliating her children, several of whom admitted to
incestuous relationships; the principal of a
prestigious Orthodox Melbourne school dismissed for
sexual molestation - remind us once again that the
Orthodox community is not immune to the plagues of the
larger one.

Is it right and proper - constructive or destructive -
to air this dirty linen in public, to name names, to
splash the story for all to see?...

Temple honesty

Regarding whether we are serious or are we just pretending, voting for Obama, or we really want the Temple back, in '08:
I was a teenager when I came to the US from one of the last shtetls in Ukraine. My family was easily attracted to a magnificent Reform shul nearby. I was the one that had to ask several cloying questions - why do they wear scarves instead of tallis? why do they say strange things instead Jewish-related passages?

The answer was that because the Jews who long ago came from the utter poverty in Eastern Europe have become free to take control of their own lives to live in a great country, and we can modernize our beliefs accordingly. If I didn't like it at that shul, we could try a Temple not far away, because it may provide additional element of fun, by dedicating each week to honoring each of many nations of the world. Why, I asked? We Jews need to learn to appreciate other people.

Somehow I found myself in a Conservative shul. I remember a rabbi's, or a community director's speech during a Yom Kippur service, after a series of funny jokes: "And now we must be really grateful for this opportunity to sit here, together, free of fears and worries, enjoying this pelasant atmosphere, and maybe we can just devote a moment to contemplate on those who are really fasting today, because they don't have anything to eat. THIS IS the REAL YOM KIPPUR!"

That was the last straw. After college, after having even exposed there to the supermarket-like circus of ideologies, which included all variations of Christianity, New Age and Jewish Reconstructionism, Humanism and Neo-Neoisms, I still kept the memories of the soundbites from my Reform and Conservative experiences. Naturally, I steered myself to an Orthodox shul. Tehre I realized how dishonest I would have been to my late grandparents, who prayed for the Moshiach, and for the real Temple, had I graduated from a pathetic shtibl-shul of unpainted wood, to an airy edifice of concrete and stained glass, and to empower myself to edit the ultimate object of my grandparents' prayers.

Through communist prosecutions, accusations of being fanatical parasites, they kept on believing. I had no right to let the sensation of having become an enlightened, successful Jew, to actually disobey the commandments we have kept for thousands and so years.

We are the ones who are serious, who do not snicker behind our boss's back at his seemingly funny commands, and we proudly keep transmitting the words, the ideas, and practices we were asked for our boss. My and your grandparents told us about Abraham, where he might have thought about G-d's most incredible, challenging, inhuman to our gentle, modern senses request - to sacrifice your own son. He, being intellectually honest, believed - seriously, without fooling himself, and really wanted to obey his Boss. He built his own altar. And that is why we believe that we will do whatever he asked us. Through thick and thin, with eyes wide open, we know that there is no overriding authority above him. Yes, we will build our own altar.

Proud to be an Ashkenozi

I have my own terutz for eating kitniyot. But, the pro-eating argument in the decision is still significantly connected to the concept of projecting a message, "to show that you're from Israel." It sounds antiquated, or unpopular, but there is no halachic task upon us to "show" that we are from a certain locale.

The only "show" task we have is to dress differently so as to look differently from gentiles. Maybe another task is to look decent, and not ostentatious. I can't think of other tasks like that.

But the rationale of appearing as someone from Israel, besides reminding me of Machon Meir mentality, reminds me of Reform synagogue, unfortunately. I remember when my dad and I drove around on Shabbos looking for a shul, the only one we found easily was a huge building of a reform shul. Therewe saw a lot of strange things. So when my dad and I asked the people why the tallis were small, why they prayed like Christians, why they prayed in English ("you're Jewish, right?"), why the women sat with men, why the American flag, why A, B, C, they answered that to know, to show that this is modern times, we are in USA and the religion must reflect the surroundings.

So the answer to the Kitniyot decision is that they are too sure that kitniyot-eating is specific to Israel. Most of Israeli population now, unfortunately, is eating a mixture of chametz with token matza. Religious Sephardim are eating kitniyot. But the Machon Meir thought gets caught up in assumption that Sephardim are the Israeli-specific thing.

The way we can examine Yemenite and Ashkenazi culture, we can also strongly suggest that Ashkenazim and Teymanim are probably from the same region of Israel, prior to the Destruction of the Temple, and why should we Ashkenazim suddenly mix our identities? Protecting the minhagim of the family, clan, and place of roginin is a very serious concept in Halachah. When discussing the Teymanim people usually go gaga and say "how cute" the Teymani minhagim are. Nobody suggest that they change their minhagim. So by the same token, why should Ashkenazim? At Machonn Meir they didn't see the conenction of this logic, " mah kesher?"

Another strong reason for abstaining from kitniyot is the way it is written is Shulchan Aruch, sif 453. Rama reminds that many authorities tried to literally cancel the minhag, but "nichshalu", as I understand, they "ran into problems," if not "failed," andrealized that the authority of the rabbis that insituted the abstention has been ever so wise.

My own terutz, which is also connected to appearance, to eat kitniyot, is that many arrogant shkenazim offhandedly say that because Sephardim eat kitniyot, "they eat chametz. " Since we are concerned with "maaris ayin," and we don't go into McDonald's to drink a cup of water, we don't eat fish blood (though it's permitted) -- so that a Jew, arrogant, judgmental, uninformed, or whatever - will not come to a wrong conclusion.
I think we should eat kitniyot to erase the possibility of creating such a false impression about a group of Jews. As long as the kitniyot have a Badatz rating, which they can easily have.

I have seen though, sunflower seeds, corn, shelled peanuts, being leniently and arbitrarily consumed, wherein I personally thought of these foods having been kept from before Pesach by the person.

I spoke to a guy from a kibbutz up north and he said that corn, sunflower seeds, and things that grow above ground are harvested by the same combine that harvests wheat. They just change the front attachment. He strongly believes in abstaining from kitniyot. He reminded me that as far as canola, which is grown in Canada and US, since on fields it is often rotated with wheat and rye, for purposes of enriching the soil as well, it is enough for one stalk of stray wheat to render an acre of canola crop unfit for Pesach.

The Radar (Migdal) Synagogue

I searched the whole Internet for an in-depth story or a picture of Beit Vegan's Migdal Shul and found none. I am providing my own photo of the building.

The story I pieced together from talking to the locals is that at the British built here one of the first radar stations that had a radar mounted on top of the tower, visible in the picture. The radar must have been the first non-naval radar station for its times, or outside Europe, or in the Middle East.

The Wikipedia's Beit Vegan entry is not so correct ("During the British Mandate, the army built one of its radar stations in Bayit VeGan. A synagogue, Beit Knesset Migdal ("The Tower"), now stands on the spot."), since the tall grey tower is the radar tower.

The shul is a major center for Young Israel, though the crowd seems to have aged. Most minyans nowadays are literally staffed by Charedi, as can be seen on Friday nights at the shul's main synagogue hall. The daily morning 7:25 am minyan is a hodge-podge of locals valuing it for its 30 minute shacharis. Most young Mizruchniks and Kookniks attend shacharit at the Avreichim 2 doors behind the Migdal, where the Shearis Isroel and Litvishe organized derech wins, hands down, everyone over.

The Fast of 9th of Av

The of Av has just passed and the whole world has not even blinked. If the nation only knew that the real peace might be available through the Temple, rebuilt, on the Temple Mount, accessible by anyone front these nations of the world. They would be fasting, too, if they knew how much they need it. After all, they do need it, to go up to Jerusalem and ask a Jew to come to the Temple of G-d and pray together (for the Feast of Tabernacles, see the Pentateuch, Leviticus)

The trick to fasting for me was to conserve energy, to walk up to the Avrichim Kolel minyan, which is air-conditioned, to sleep till 6:40 pm, and pray the Afternoon and Evening service at the Great Beit Knesset.

Meanwhile, Peres, the new figurehead of the State of Israel, has made a lasting impression on everyone by casting himself again, as a national sage. As if the state could not otherwise survive without him.

“I always look ahead,” he said. “The (Israeli) people must be taught…” or something to that effect. We are going to witness the resurgence of Shimon Says websites.

Something is definitely going on, because the gunship choppers and jets have been roaring in the sky all day long.