Gambling and Other Addictions

Is one halakhically allowed to become a drug addict? How about a gambling addict? Or a smoking addict?R. Mordechai Willig spoke recently about Gambling in Halakhah and answered all of the above questions in the negative. He quoted a 1972 article by R. Ahron Soloveichik in Tradition, in which the latter based the prohibition on the Sefer Ha-Hinukh's understanding of the verse "that you not stray after your own heart" (Numbers 15:39). This, R. Ahron Soloveichik argues based on the Hinukh, precludes becoming addicted to anything. R. Willig explicitly applies it to gambling, smoking, drugs and... overeating.He points out the "mitzvah" aspect of such...

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NEW BOOK and Cloning in Jewish Law

I am happy to announce a new book published by Yashar, Medicine and Jewish Law volume III edited by Drs. Fred Rosner and Robert Schulman. The topics covered by the respected authors include those that are very timely and of public interest: infertility, genetics, end of life issues, and other miscellaneous topics. See more about the book here, as well as an excerpt chapter: Impact of Medical History on Medical Halachah (PDF) by Edward Reichman, M.D.What is the position of Jewish law and tradition on the cloning of humans, assuming that it can be done successfully and without defective products? Disagreement.R. J. David Bleich (Judaism and Healing,...

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Thank You Sir, May I Have Another Hundred Thousand V

Follow-up to this post.I know, this is a somewhat controversial milestone because there were some extra hits earlier this week due to the "Read More" function. Nevertheless, the never-modified hit counter has passed 600,000. Congratulations to all the blog's readers and especially the commenters. As my father says, the most interesting part of the blog is the comments secti...

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Hipster Judaism

The Jewish Week has a thoughtful article about Hipster Judaism, the movement to make being Jewish "cool." Basically, these hipsters take (generally) meaningless pop culture and add a Jewish feel to it. Is this a good thing or it just one more example of watering down Judaism?This is not a new discussion (non-Orthodox Jews get ready to be offended). I have often heard people debate the merits of non-Orthodox Judaism. Is it better to have people at least nominally connected to Judaism or to let many people fall by the wayside but leaving authentic Judaism as the only Jewish alternative. If you want to turn to Judaism, it's going to be the real thing. This debate can even be taken into Orthodoxy itself. There are a number of streams within Orthodoxy that some would call "bedi'eved" -- an inauthentic...

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Modern Orthodoxy and the Failure of Nerve

In the Winter 2005 issue of Jewish Action, R. Emanuel Feldman bemoans the lack of protest in the American Orthodox community to the Disengagement from Gaza. In a rejoinder, R. Yosef Blau makes the following points:1. Based on R. Joseph B. Soloveitchik's perspective, territorial compromise is not necessarily contrary to halakhah2. It is bad policy for American Jews to protest the Israeli government because:A. It will weaken Israel's international standingB. It will set a precedent that non-Orthodox groups will use to protest Israel's religious policies3. Many Americans believe that only Israelis, who are putting their lives on the line on a daily basis, have the right to make decisions about Israel's policies4. Many Americans, even Orthodox Jews, supported the Disengagement for a variety of...

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Student's Algorithm for Time-Adjusting Distributions

For those readers interest in applied mathematics:A number of years ago, I was faced with the task of adjusting a distribution of possible outcomes over the life of the relevant phenomenon. I started with two distributions -- a distribution around the mean of possible ultimate outcomes and a time distribution of the expected progression of the mean. Since uncertainty diminishes as time progresses, the distribution of possible outcomes must shrink over time until the ultimate is reached, at which point the distribution of possible outcomes is a single point. The question is how to shrink and adjust the distribution of possible outcomes as time...

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Legalizing Drugs

Legalizing drugs... for medical use, of course.R. J. David Bleich, Judaism and Healing: Halakhic Perspectives (2002 edition) pp. 178-179:[E]verything possible should be done to alleviate the patient's suffering. This includes aggressive treatment of pain even to a degree which at present is not common in medical practice. Physicians are reluctant to use morphine in high dosages because of the danger of depression of the cerebral center responsible for respiration. The effect of such medications is that the patient cannot control the muscles necessary for breathing. However, as has been discussed in the preceding chapter, there is no halakhic objection to providing such medication in order to control pain in the case of terminal patients and maintaining such patients on a respirator. Similarly,...

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Jewish Community Professionals

Interesting blog for Jewish community professiona...

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Where's Everybody Coming From?

Over 5,000 hits today, a Hirhurim record. Where is everyone coming fr...

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Re-Inspired

Re-InspiredBy Rabbi Yair Hoffman, copyright 2005Dean, Tiferet High School for Girls (formerly Gamla High School)Reprinted with permissionRecently, a number of us have viewed Aish HaTorah’s eye-opening production entitled “Inspired.” The video is a masterful work which touches the neshama. It awakens us to the myriad opportunities that lie before us in the area of Kiruv Rechokim. We chuckled when we saw the opening scenes- filmed in Boro Park, where interviewee after interviewee states that Kiruv Rechokim is important, yet respond that they personally do nothing about it.Read moreOur first reaction to seeing the video in its entirety, and it is a good and proper reaction, is to re-examine what we are doing and try to figure out how we can incorporate this beautiful concept into our personal...

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Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design: The View of the RCA

Evolution is not heresy! So says the Rabbinical Council of America:December 22nd 200521 Kislev 5766In light of the ongoing public controversy about Evolution, Creationism and Intelligent Design, the RCA notes that significant Jewish authorities have maintained that evolutionary theory, properly understood, is not incompatible with belief in a Divine Creator, nor with the first 2 chapters of Genesis.Read moreThere are authentic, respected voices in the Jewish community that take a literalist position with regard to these issues; at the same time, Judaism has a history of diverse approaches to the understanding of the biblical account of creation. As Rabbi Joseph Hertz wrote, "While the fact of creation has to this day remained the first of the articles of the Jewish creed, there is no uniform...

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Who Can Retell?

Time for another conspiracy theory. This website (click on the candles) got me thinking again about the Hanukah song "Mi Yemalel" and my theory that it is subtly anti-religious. How so? Consider the lyrics (taken from here):Mi yemalel gvurot Yisra'el, 'otan mi yimneh? Hen bechol dor yaqum hagibor, go'el ha'am. Shma'! Bayamim hahem bazman hazeh, Makabi moshia' ufodeh, uvyameinu kol 'am Yisra'el, yit'akhed, yaqum veyiga'el.Note the seemingly religious terms of praise of God that are applied to humans. It seems like God is intentionally written out of the story.[Reverting to Modern Hebrew transliteration. Please forgive me.]"Gvurot Yisrael," the brave deeds of Israel. Isn't it usually Gvurot Hashem?It is "hagibor," the brave man of each generation, who redeems the nation. Isn't is usually God...

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בס"ד

I don't know why, but I find it EXTREMELY annoying when people insist on putting the acronym בס"ד at the top of everything -- letters, notebooks, even websites and e-mails. I suspect that it is not just BTs. But why? I just don't understand why. Is it somewhere in Shulhan Arukh that I missed? Is there some sort of custom that I'm not aware of? I know this is unfair, but when I see it I think, "Oh, he must think he's REAL frum, certainly more than the rest of us."Below is a letter written the by Hasam Sofer. It's hard to read, but notice what is not in the top right corner. Below that is the wedding invitation sent out by R. Hayim Soloveitchik...

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Vomiting in Halakhah IV

The Poison SandwichA medical student was not doing well and was picked on by his fellow students. It got to the point that his lunch was secretly stolen on a regular basis. This student then devised a trick to find out who was stealing his lunch: he put poison in his lunch. When one of his fellow students started vomiting violently, it was clear who had been stealing his lunch. The student then heroically saved this poisoned student.The question is whether this student was halakhically allowed to poison his lunch.Read more In the journal Pa'amei Ya'akov (Kislev 2000; Nisan 2000), R. Yitzhak Zilberstein ruled that this student acted properly. Since the thief was a habitual sinner, he qualified for the following Talmudic judgment:We mark kerem reva'i [produce from a tree's fourth year] with...

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Leadership and Faith

I can only aspire to someday be as cynical as this "friend" of Rabbi Bechhof...

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Electric Hanukah Menorahs

R. Chaim Jachter wrote an article in the RJJ Journal about electric Hanukah menorahs that is to appear in his shortly forthcoming book from Yashar, Gray Matter volume 2. The following is a brief synopsis of the reasons electric menorahs cannot be used to fulfill the mitzvah of lighting on Hanukah.1. There is no act of kindling the menorah, which is a requirement of Hanukah lights (as opposed to Shabbos lights). This is proposed by R. Tzvi Pesah Frank and R. Ovadiah Hadayah but rejected by R. Moshe Stern.2. An incandescent light bulb is considered a torch (R. Eliezer Waldenberg and the Kaf Ha-Hayim).3. Electric lights are too different from the...

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Slifkin: A Political Analysis

The following is a theory I devised to explain some recent developments in the Slifkin Affair. It is entirely conjecture and could be totally wrong. Please take it as nothing more than a fanciful theory.Here are the facts:1. About three weeks ago, three members of the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudath Israel of America--R. Shmuel Kamenetsky, R. Aharon Schechter, and R. Ya'akov Perlow--signed letters condemning R. Slifkin in somewhat vague terms, almost a full year after the original scandal surfaced and after months of relative quiet.2. Agudath Israel of America's official magazine, The Jewish Observer, just published an article by R. Avi Shafran on Intelligent Design (available online here). This issue was certainly ready for press when the above letters were released.3. The Jewish Observer...

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Kashrus: Why?

R. Meir Soloveichik has a new article in Azure titled Locusts, Giraffes, and the Meaning of Kashrut, in which he offers an interesting theological explanation of the kosher laws:While the Tora leaves as a mystery the reasons for the specific criteria of permitted animals legislated in Leviticus, it is explicit with regard to the overall purpose that these dietary distinctions are meant to achieve: A daily lifestyle that expresses Israel’s chosenness. The nature of kashrut is thus at once mysterious and obvious; while God does not explain the importance of cud-chewing or leaping, of split hooves or scales, the Bible insists that it be perfectly clear to the non-Jew that the Tora-observant Israelite lives a life that reminds him constantly of his unique relationship with God... God wishes for...

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A Xmas Mitzvah

See this story from Newsweek's website:My wife pleaded that she was on a tight budget for a good purpose. She had read of Stockings With Care, a volunteer group in New York City that coordinates with social agencies who work with impoverished families. The children have written down their Christmas wishes and through Stockings with Care, social workers provide these “wish lists” to people like my wife who buy the gifts. These presents are given to the parents so that on Christmas morning the children get exactly what they yearn for—and can thank Mom or Dad or other caregiver for making their wish come true. My wife had a list for five kids, and the oldest on it desperately wanted an MP3 player.The [Orthodox Jewish B&H] salesman listened to this story, then said he’d see what he could do....

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Charity Telemarketers

Is there anything wrong with telemarketers for a charity using pressure tactics to get people to donate?R. Aaron Levine, Moral Issues of the Marketplace in Jewish Law, pp. 241-242:A variation of the above case occurs when Arrow [the telemarketer] is a charity solicitor. R. Bezalel Stern dealt with an analogous case: A Rabbi (R) had in his possession matzah for the night of Passover in excess of his own religious requirement (mitzvah) needs. His friend (F) had no matzah to fulfill his mitzvah need and therefore requested R to either sell or give him the excess supply. Here, F’s efforts to overcome R’s initial resistance to make the matzah available to him violates neither the lo tit’avveh nor the lo tahmod interdicts. This is so because absent F’s pleadings and exertions, R, is, in any case,...

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When Will They Learn?

Those crazy scientists. They need to speak to my daughter's fifth grade teacher ASAP:The journal Science's pick for breakthrough of the year in 2005 is "evolution in action," focusing on studies of how evolution works and how it affects lives today.Several research projects were discussed at meetings to choose the annual breakthrough winner."Then we realized they were all connected to evolution," said Colin J. Norman, news editor of Science. "We realized that if we put these together at the molecular level, it's been a banner year for evolutionary research. It shows that evolution underlies all of biology."Link I, Link...

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Coffee

R. Micha Berger talks about how to make your morning coffee the religious highpoint of your d...

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Labels

Lamed Zayin composed this Orthodoxy Test that determines, based on your answers to specific questions, where in the spectrum of Orthodoxy you fall (Conservative, Reform, and Gentile readers need not apply). Here's where I ended up: Left Wing Modern Orthodox: 18%Right Wing Modern Orthodox: 70%Left Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 74%Right Wing Yeshivish/Chareidi: 41%This means you're: Left Wing YeshivishWhat does it mean?So you're frum, but "with it." You know the lingo and walk the walk, but maybe you catch a movie on Motzei Shabbos. Never on Saturday Night though. Sometimes you wonder why all frum Jews can't be normal like you.Not an unfair evaluat...

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An Open Letter to the Israeli Yated Neeman

In your recent editorial about the censorship of R. Nosson Slifkin's books, you wrote:Many books include ideas mentioned by Slifkin, but only his were condemned. Why? Because of "the impudent and audacious spirit of throwing off the yoke (prikas ol) of the mesorah miSinai and our sages (rabboseinu hakedoshim) who are its bearers (maggidehoh)," that is not found in those others.I fear that these sentences have raised more questions than they have answered. The implication is that had R. Slifkin written his book with a tone that you would consider more Torahdik but containing the same ideas, the books would not have been condemned. Does this mean that the Gedolim would sanction a book written in a mussardik tone and claiming any of the following:1. The world is billions of years old2. While...

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The Bible in English

In the latest issue of First Things, Richard John Neuhaus, the editor, complains about the official Catholic translation of the Bible, the New American Bible (NAB). He uses some harsh words, calling the translators "tone-deaf linguistic wreckers" among other things.One of his complaints is about the enigmatic first passage of the Torah, "בראשית ברא א-להים" which is commonly translated as "In the beginning God created..." From the perspective of Hebrew grammar, the phrase is difficult because בראשית technically means "In the beginning of". Beginning of what? Commentators and translators have struggled with this problem for millennia. The KJV translates it as above: "In the beginning God created..." The NAB, in an attempt to be grammatically correct, translates it according to the commentary...

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Foreign Language Miscellany

1. Telecommuting is such a geshmak, especially when everyone else is going meshuga (for some reason, my mother's "meshige" sounds even better in that sentence).2. From the mouth of babes: "I can beat up Shmuly and Shmuly can beat up Fuly, so I can beat up Fuly. It's a kal va-homer." If he had said ipso facto, I would have been more impressed.3. Recent statement by a posek to a friend regarding bugs: "One man's reductio ad absurdum is another's ein hakhi nam...

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A Bug Story

UPDATE: A new post will come once I go through all the corrections I've received.You might have heard the recent uproar about certain pre-washed vegetables that lost their kosher certification. Here is the story as I have heard it from a few (anonymous) sources. Note that I have not done any journalistic investigation and have only asked one or two people about it. Take this with a grain of salt.At a convention of AKO (Association of Kashrus Organizations) in November, there was a discussion about the preparation of pre-washed vegetables (see here and here). In the course of the discussion, it became apparent that the Star-K was following an...

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The Chief Rabbi Has Good Taste

Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks with R. Daniel Z. Feldman, looking at the latter's book The Right and the Good: Halakhah and Human Relations. Taken at YU by Menachem Butler.Note R. Shmuel Marcus, grandson of R. Ahron Soloveichik, in the backgrou...

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Darkness

R. Shlomo Miller, in a recent letter (here -- PDF), quotes the Vilna Gaon's view that darkness is not merely the absence of light but a creation in itself (Aderes Eliyahu, Gen. 1:4 sv. va-yavdel). This, R. Miller suggests, might solve the problems of Quantum Theory and Non-local Reality, that is demonstrated based on Bell's Theorem. Let me be clear: I have no idea what that means. However, I wonder whether 1) he is assuming that this is an oral tradition received from Sinai or 2) just that the Vilna Gaon was so smart that he figured it out himself. Or, perhaps, 3) the Vilna Gaon didn't realize the significance of his explanation and its scientific applications. The reason I ask these question will become clear shortly.The Ramban disagrees with the Vilna Gaon. On Gen. 1:4 (sv. va-yavdel), the...

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Torah Among the Gentiles

I've been asked a few times how to understand the saying of the Sages: "If someone tells you that there is wisdom among the gentiles, believe it. If he tells you that there is Torah among the gentiles, do not believe it." If that is the case, how can I utilize modern commentaries on the Bible written by Christians?I posted an answer to Avodah from R. Hershel Schachter's recent TorahWeb devar Torah. R. Schachter wrote:But at the same time the religious Jew has his own unique outlook on life and style of living. The tradition of the Talmud was, based on the possuk in Eicha (2:9), that although there is much chochma (knowledge and wisdom) to be gained from the secular world, but 'Torah' (teaching a way of life and an outlook on the world) can not be picked up from the other disciplines. These...

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Days of the Bible

I don't want to revisit the Slifkin Affar again. Consider this a defense not of R. Slifkin but of the great scholar R. David Tzvi Hoffmann.On the Avodah e-mail list, Rabbi Simcha Coffer, as part of his lengthy arguments in favor of a literalist understanding of the Creation narrative, wrote the following about the suggestion that the days of Creation were not 24-hour periods:I ran a search in Tanach and the word yamim appears 292 times. There are two connotations: 1) Days 2) Seas. That's it!In other words, when the Torah writes "yom" in the Creation narrative, it must be referring to 24-hour periods. Similarly, when the Torah (Ex. 20:10) writes in the ten commandments that God created the world in six "yamim", it must be referring to six periods of 24-hours.I responded to this briefly and...

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Religious Zionism on Open Access

R. Shlomo Aviner's essay Do Not Ascend Like A Wall, as translated into English by R. Mordechai Friedfertig, is now available in full on Open Access.L...

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Podcast

For those who missed it when I mentioned it last week, you can find my podcast he...

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Ride to a Wedding II

I got back not long ago from this wedding. I had the pleasure of sitting next to Dr. Nachum Klafter. The best part of the wedding was definitely when a Lubavitcher with a "Yehi" yarmulke sat down next to Dr. Klafter and engaged him in a conversation about how the story of Hanukah is about the defeat of Rationali...

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Death Penalty

Over at Cross Currents, Toby Katz wrote a post about the recent execution of Stanley Tookie Williams titled "Tookie — goodbye and good riddance." In the comments, I objected to taking this tone about his execution. I mistakenly thought that Tookie was one of the many "born again" death row inmates who regretted his crime. If that were the case, and he was a repentant sinner, then our attitude to him should be different.The Gemara (Makkos 13b) is clear that someone who is due to be punished by a beis din and repents is still punished. However the question is raised why that is the case. R. Yosef Engel (Gilyonei Ha-Shas, ad loc.) brings two general approaches to this:1. If the criminal really did do teshuvah then he should not be punished. However, it is simply impossible for any human to conclusively...

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Proper Attribution of Secondary Sources

From R. Aaron Levine, Moral Issues of the Marketplace in Jewish Law, pp. 31-35:Using Secondary Sources Without AttributionI. Geneivat Da'atThe reasonableness criterion provides the starting point for analyzing the ethics of [Rabbi] Samson not disclosing to his audience that he made use of Berit Yehudah to prepare his lecture. Consider that thorough preparation combined with the knowledge of which sources to consult will assuredly generate goodwill for Samson for the lecture he delivers. There can be no doubt that this goodwill is his legitimate entitlement. Accordingly, if the audience generally presumes that Samson makes use of secondary sources and eclectic works to prepare his lecture, his failure to give attribution to Berit Yehudah does not project him as more scholarly and learned than...

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Reiki Ruckus

A frequent correspondent of mine, Dr. Moyshe Kalman, writes a column in a Jewish newspaper on medical issues of interest to the Jewish (primarily Orthodox) community. In a column in November, Dr. Kalman wrote about the controversial "alternative" medical treatment called Reiki.The old, mainstream holistic therapies such as Osteopathy and Acupuncture have been established and observed for over a hundred years, in the case of Osteopathy and three thousand years and in the case of Acupuncture have become well rooted. While they many not be “conventional” they are grudgingly accepted as a recognizable form of medical treatment almost universally. Now, however, sneaking into our lives in the wake of this wave of New Age Mysticism are many “spiritual healing” methods which not only do not have...

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Ride to a Wedding

Anyone going to the Cincinnati-Teaneck wedding in Williamsburg this Sunday afternoon from Flatbush? I need a ride. Please e-mail me.Thanks in advan...

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Eruvin in Brooklyn III

In a previous post, I discussed the issue of having a street go all the way through from one end of a city to the other. Below are some pictures of Ocean Ave. and Ocean Parkway. Recall that Ocean Ave. is a fairly straight continuation of Flatbush Ave., that begins with the Mahattan Bridge. On the other side, Ocean Ave. ends at the beach. Here is a picture from Google Earth (thanks to R. Reuven Ibragimov for suggesting that I use the service) of Ocean Ave.:Note how the street spills out onto the beach, which lacks a sufficient incline to qualify as a wall for an eruv.Ocean ParkwayBelow are maps of Ocean Parkway. The street starts off as the BQE/Gowanis...

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Blog Awards

Israelly Cool, in conjunction with the Jerusalem Post, is hosting awards for Jewish and Israeli Blogs (JIB) in 2005. So far, this blog has been nominated in three categories (Best Overall Blog, Best Jewish Religion Blog, Best Series). Thank you to those who nominated the blog. I'll let you know when voting starts.Krum as a Bagel suggested a category for best commenter. I've decided to give my own awards for different categories of commenters. Rather than going through a whole nomination and voting process, I'm just declaring winners.Most prolific and enigmatic use of acronyms in comments: Steve BrizelMost cynical commenter: ShmaryaMost sought-after...

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Metzitzah VII

ZSB shares with us the following message from the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:The New York City Department of Health recommends against the practice, but in any case suggests that parents be told before the bris if MbP is to be used, so that they can make an informed decision...In November 2004, the Health Department was notified of 3 male infants with HSV-1. All were circumcised by one mohel (Mohel B), who performed metzitzah b’peh. The infants developed herpes infection in the genital area 8-10 days after circumcision and were hospitalized for several weeks. One baby died from the infection. Two cases were reported by physicians in 2005 and both are also consistent with infection from metzitzah b’peh. Every case occurred in the time frame consistent with transmission from...

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A Case for Peace

I recently read Alan Dershowitz's new book The Case for Peace and was somewhat surprised by it (here's a link to an article about Dershowitz's recent debate with Noam Chomsky on this subject). Dershowitz attempts to map out a workable peace plan, emphasizing that both sides will need to compromise and giving specific suggestions on what is necessary for each side to abandon and on what issues there is room for discussion. Additionally, he brings to light a number of very creative solutions to some of the thorniest problems. For example, regarding the lack of contiguity between Gaza and the West Bank that would make uniting the two in one country...

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