Jewish Action Spring 2023 by Jewish Action

Spring 5783/2023

Vol. 83, No. 3 • $5.50

Torah in the age of Artificial Intelligence

Touro’s Lander College for Men Powering Our Students to Succeed.

I’ve been intrigued by politics and government policy from a young age. One of my Touro professors helped me land an internship at the NY State Assembly, launching my career. When I was initially elected, I was the youngest member of the NY State Assembly. My focus is on both issues related to my generation and the community that I represent. Antisemitic attacks are on the rise and I am working to address this on many levels, including increasing funding for security at our schools to keep our children safe. I feel honored that I can spend my days making a real difference in our community.

TOURO TRAILBLAZER DAN ROSENTHAL, ‘14 TOURO’S LANDER COLLEGE FOR MEN

NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLYMAN

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Spring 2023/5783 | Vol. 83, No. 3

INSIDE FEATURES

OU KOSHER CENTENNIAL SPOTLIGHT Nathan K. Gross By Rabbi Julius Berman

20 24

JEWISH WORLD The Torah Revival in Ukraine By Steve Lipman

30 32 37 50 53 64

Albert Reichmann, z”l: Working behind the Scenes to Bring Jewry Back By Steve Lipman How the OU Is Helping: Dispatch from Ukraine By JA Staff PESACH Inflation Update: Will Pesach Prices Be Different This Year? By Aviva Engel COVER STORY: TORAH IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE What Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us about What it Means to Be Human By Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank Halachic Smarts about Smart Technology By Rabbi Chaim Jachter Artificial Intelligence: The Newest Revolution in Torah Study? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin in conversation with Professor Moshe Koppel AI Meets Halachah: Jewish Action speaks with Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt

88 64 67

FAMILY MATTERS Navigating Widowhood in the Frum Community By Merri Ukraincik

DEPARTMENTS

02 06 10 16 78 80 84

LETTERS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Success(ion) By Mitchel R. Aeder FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER Ki Heim Chayeinu—Living Jewish IN FOCUS Being an Informed Kosher Consumer By Rabbi Moshe Elefant JUST BETWEEN US Contemplating a Move? What You Should Be Thinking About By Rabbi Yechiel and Rebbetzin Adina Morris THE CHEF’S TABLE A Fresh & Flavorful Pesach By Naomi Ross LEGAL-EASE What’s the Truth about . . . When an Eved Ivri Goes Free? By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky

37 87 88 96 102 104 106 109 112

FROM THE DESK OF RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH The Wave Runners INSIDE THE OU By Sara Goldberg INSIDE PHILANTHROPY Investing in NCSY—Investing in the Jewish Future BOOKS Kan Tzipor: Inspiring Stories on Seizing “Magic Moments” of Opportunity to Do Chessed By Stephen J. Savitsky Reviewed by Steve Lipman The Revelation at Sinai: What Does “Torah from Heaven” Mean? Edited by Yoram Hazony, Gil Student and Alex Sztuden Reviewed by Rabbi Steven Gotlib Hidden Heroes: One Woman’s Story of Resistance and Rescue in the Soviet Union By Pamela Braun Cohen Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff Reviews in Brief By Rabbi Gil Student LASTING IMPRESSIONS The Best Is Yet To Be By David Olivestone

Cover: Bacio Design & Marketing, Inc. Jewish Action is published by the Orthodox Union • 40 Rector Street, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10006, 212.563.4000. Printed Quarterly—Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall, plus Special Passover issue. ISSN No. 0447-7049. Subscription: $16.00 per year; Canada, $20.00; Overseas, $60.00. Periodical's postage paid at New York, NY, and additional offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Jewish Action, 40 Rector Street, New York, NY 10006.

Jewish Action seeks to provide a forum for a diversity of legitimate opinions within the spectrum of Orthodox Judaism. Therefore, opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

LETTERS THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION jewishaction.com

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CELEBRATING OU KOSHER’S CENTENNIAL Your recent issue, “Celebrating 100 Years of OU Kosher” (winter 2022), preoccupied me from Kabbalas Shabbos straight through to Havdalah. Each page is chock full of fascinating facts and history about the movers and shakers who shaped the OU and the entire kashrus scene in America for the past one hundred years. The piece I found most fascinating was about “plant-derived meat.” How appropriate to end off with an article exploring what lies ahead in the world of kashrus. My family knows not to dare put Jewish Action in the recycle bin. Issues of Jewish Action form their own treasure trove in my bookcase. Thank you for producing a first-class publication. Susie Berzansky Bensoussan Rochester, New York Thank you for your edition dedicated to surveying 100 years of OU Kosher. And thank you to the OU for certifying a myriad of kosher products, available to Jews (and non-Jews) all over the world. It is truly amazing that so many markets, shops, gas stations, rest areas and of course, mega supermarket chains offer kosher products. My hope is that the OU will expand kosher certification so that the health conscious will also be able to visit their favorite health food stores and buy hundreds of kosher and nutritious foods to their body’s content. Zev Bar Eitan Nof Ayalon, Israel

Yehuda Neuberger Mordecai D. Katz

Vice Chairman Board Chairman, Boardof ofthe Governors

Barbara Siegel HenryLehmann I. Rothman

Chairman, Board of of Governors Vice Chairman, Board Governors

AviM.Katz Gerald Schreck

Vice Chairman, Board of Governors Executive Vice President/Chief Professional Officer Emanuel Adler

Allen I. Fagin

Executive Vice President Chief Institutional Advancement Rabbi Moshe Hauer Officer

Arnold Gerson

Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer SeniorJosh Managing Director Rabbi Joseph, Ed.D.

Rabbi Steven Weil

Chief Human Resources Officer Executive Vice President, Emeritus Rabbi Lenny Bessler

Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb

Chief of Staff Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer Yoni Cohen

Shlomo Schwartz

Managing Director, Communal Engagement Rabbi Yaakov Glasser Chief Human Resources Officer

Rabbi Lenny Bessler

Interim Chief Information Officer Miriam Greenman Chief Information Officer

REMEMBERING RABBI ROSENBERG In the fifties, when I was in my early twenties, I left my home in Toronto and moved to New York. I got a job working at the front desk at the OU. I loved my job and especially enjoyed working with Rabbi Alexander Rosenberg (“Legends in the Kosher World” [winter 2022]), who was kind and friendly and had a great sense of humor. Rebbetzin Rosenberg visited often, and like her husband, was warm and friendly. I recall that before Pesach we were flooded with hundreds of calls regarding kashrut questions. I will never forget the wonderful years I spent at the OU. Draisa Frischman Toronto, Ontario

Samuel Davidovics

Managing Director, Public Affairs

Maury Litwack Chief Innovation Officer Rabbi Dave Felsenthal Chief Financial Officer/Chief Administrative Officer Shlomo Schwartz

Director of Marketing and Communications Gary Magder General Counsel

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Dr. Tzvi Chairman Hersh Weinreb Joel Rabbi M. Schreiber, Emeritus Jewish Action Committee Dr. Rosalyn Chair © Copyright 2018 Sherman, by the Orthodox Union Gerald M. Schreck, Co-Chair Eleven Broadway, New York, NY 10004 Joel M. Schreiber, Chairman Emeritus Telephone 212.563.4000 • www.ou.org © Copyright 2023 by the Orthodox Union 40 Rector Street, 4th Floor, New York,JewishAction NY 10006 Twitter: @Jewish_Action Facebook: Telephone 212.563.4000 • www.ou.org

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OREOS: THE BACK STORY Readers might be interested in part of the back story of Oreo® and other Nabisco cookie products becoming OU certified in 1997. The story starts with the development of a new ice cream flavor: “Cookies and Cream.” Nabisco (subsequently Kraft and now Mondelez) was selling the cookie part (not the inside cream) to these ice cream companies and was using an OU-certified kosher co-packer to produce these cookies, since Nabisco did not have the necessary capacity in house to make the product themselves. As a result, these cookies were technically OU-certified.

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The ice cream companies wanted to call the product “Oreo Cookies and Cream,” which they believed would increase sales. Rightfully, the OU said no—it would confuse kosher consumers, who knew at that time that Oreo cookies were definitely not kosher. What to do? The director of Nabisco’s foodservice marketing division at the time was a professional friend, and she reached out to me for help. I spent a full day at Nabisco’s home office in East Hanover, New Jersey, talking about kosher, starting with a general introductory talk followed by individual, detailed discussions with various stakeholders—marketing, production, and research and development—to help the company understand the opportunities and challenges of Nabisco going kosher. Nabisco then chose to work with the OU to undertake the slow process of transitioning ten cookie-baking plants in the US over to kosher. Each plant had about ten ovens that were approximately 300 feet long, as well as expensive nonkasherable belts that were longer than the ovens themselves. This conversion, which took over three years to complete, was probably one of the most complex factory transitions to kosher. The details of that part of the process are a story for the OU itself to tell. Joe M. Regenstein Professor emeritus of food science and head of the Cornell Kosher and Halal Food Initiative Ithaca, New York GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE I enjoyed Dr. Rafael Medoff ’s retrospective on kashrus (“Keeping Kosher, Becoming American” [winter 2022]). Inter alia, the article notes that efforts to expand kosher product availability “were greatly enhanced by the establishment, in 1935, of the OU’s Organized Kashrus Laboratory. Headed by chemist Abraham Goldstein, the lab tested foods and fielded questions about the status of various products. The lab also published a quarterly Kosher Food Guide.” Permit me, as a great-grandson and the namesake of Abraham Goldstein, to do the necessary deeper dive. Contra the implication, Abraham was not a role player at the OU, but rather the foremost figure in kashrus during that formative era. In truth, Abraham’s kashrus efforts dated back to at least 1918. For my great-grandfather, providing kosher food to the Jewish public and exposing fraudulent certifications was his life’s mission. While piecing together 1920s history is not a perfect science, we do know that circa 1923 Abraham was recruited to direct the OU’s nascent kashrus division. Thus he was involved well before 1935. One small example of Abraham’s early and central involvement: a New York Times article from 1925 records that it was his complaint that resulted in the arrest of a meat merchant for violating New York’s kosher statute. Abraham is identified as “a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.” Medoff ’s article notes that the first national certification was of Heinz products, and credits Rabbi Herbert Goldstein (a friend of Abraham but not related), Herbert’s wife

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

Rebecca and others with securing this account. It neglects to mention Abraham’s pivotal role. (I am indebted to food historian Roger Horowitz, author of the award-winning book Kosher USA, and to my brother Yair for their copious research into Abraham Goldstein’s legacy.) Avi Goldstein Far Rockaway, New York I very much enjoyed your most recent edition commemorating 100 years of kashrus. However, one figure who also contributed crucially to the OU’s progress is missing: my mother, Dr. Judith Leff. Dr. Leff, who currently lives in Nachlaot, joined the OU during the mid-1980s, when the kashrus world realized that the origins of food ingredients had become very complicated. “Natural flavors” were not natural at all. The OU realized it needed an expert, multi-disciplined scientist to help its rabbanim apply halachah to this quickly evolving question. My mother, a trained biologist, chemist and botanist with a PhD from the Sorbonne, perfectly fit the bill. Over the next near-decade, she worked side by side with Rabbi Yisroel Belsky, zt”l, yb”l Rabbi Hershel Schachter and others to develop an approach to understanding the chemistry of basic ingredients. Not only was my mother instrumental in strengthening kashrus during a vital era at the OU, but she was also a role model for contemporary Orthodox women—a woman who played a key role, with the utmost tzenius, alongside major rabbanim and posekim, during a crucial moment in the history of halachah. Menachem Leff Far Rockaway, New York CORRECTION: In the last issue, we noted that Rebbetzin Rebecca Fischel Goldstein was the founder of the OU Women’s Branch. She was, however, one of several founding members. The first president of the Women’s Branch was in fact Mrs. Julie Klein, the rebbetzin of Rabbi Dr. Philip (Hillel) Klein of Manhattan’s Congregation Ohab Zedek. Special thanks to Rabbi Aaron I. Reichel for pointing out this error.

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! To send a letter to Jewish Action, e-mail ja@ou.org. Letters may be edited for clarity.

This magazine contains divrei Torah and should therefore be disposed of respectfully by either double-wrapping prior to disposal or placing in a recycling bin.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

SUCCESS(ION)

By Mitchel R. Aeder

n September 2008, I was privileged to join a group of OU leaders for a pre-Rosh Hashanah visit to the Oval Office. This was during the twilight of the presidency of George W. Bush and in the midst of a contentious campaign to succeed him. It was also at the height of the 2008 financial crisis. President Bush told us that he was hosting an important economic meeting that afternoon and had invited both the Republican and the Democratic presidential candidates, Senators McCain and Obama, to attend. Yes, he had a preferred successor, but his commitment to the country and to a successful transition was more important to him than partisan politics. All of us in the room were deeply moved by President Bush’s humility and leadership. In the business world, a primary responsibility of a board of directors is to hire senior management and evaluate their performance. Part of that responsibility is succession planning or thinking about who comes next. If the CEO leaves the company or retires, Mitchel R. Aeder is the newly elected president of the Orthodox Union.

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

is there someone on the team ready to replace them? How difficult will it be to find a replacement from outside the company? Are future leaders being cultivated from within?1 Effective executives also focus on succession planning throughout their organizations. One of my former employers updated the succession plan for every management-level position in the company every two years.2 Not only did this help the company pivot quickly when someone left, but it also forced them to focus on their employees’ professional development and readiness for promotion. Leadership changes are effectuated in a variety of ways. For example, Berkshire Hathaway has been led for decades by Warren Buffet and Charlie Munger, both of whom are now in their nineties. Several years ago, Mr. Buffet appointed two heirs apparent to significant leadership roles. In 2021, he announced that Greg Abel would eventually be CEO. Everyone—the board, the markets, the employees—knows the plan. Some companies wait for the CEO to retire or depart before commencing a search. At other companies, “activist” investors pressure boards to replace the CEO, sometimes even when the CEO founded the company (which is what happened at Apple and Twitter, among many others). But this is Jewish Action, not Harvard Business Review. My sense is that in the Jewish communal world, many organizations—shuls, schools, social service groups and yeshivot—do not plan in a conscious and proactive manner for professional and lay succession.3 Concomitantly, professional development of employees is often haphazard and ad hoc. As Jewish organizations grow beyond the fledgling state into maturity, succession planning must be on the agenda.4 Why is succession planning so critical? Two recent cases brought this to mind. I received a call from the founder of a small but successful organization that he has led for over forty years. There is no heir apparent. Nor does the organization

have an independent board. The founder recently had a health scare, and he is starting to think about slowing down. If he were to step aside, the organization would face an existential crisis without a clear structure for moving forward. Thankfully, he now realizes some planning is in order to pave a path for the organization’s future success. The very same week, I heard from the founder of a thriving social services organization. Having built and run the organization for many years, he wants to move on and pursue a new communal venture. But the organization has no one ready to fill his shoes, and the board is not sufficiently informed or engaged to lead a search for a replacement. Consequently, he feels trapped until he can belatedly develop a successor. Some communal leaders lack the time, resources and internal talent to groom successors. Other organizations or communal institutions have longterm founders or leaders who are “irreplaceable.” A significant obstacle to succession planning in nonprofits is the lack of a clear governance structure. In the business world, management reports to the board, which in turn answers to shareholders. In most communal organizations, on the other hand, there are no shareholders per se and therefore no one to hold the board accountable. And because organizational boards are often appointed by the founders and leaders, there is frequently a lack of independence and oversight. Furthermore, the boards of communal organizations consist of volunteers who are generally also donors. It therefore becomes incumbent on the board to plan for its own succession and replacement. This requires humility, foresight and wisdom.5 I suspect most of us are familiar with shuls, schools and other local organizations that have had the same professional and/or lay leadership for many years. I also suspect most of us are familiar with crises that developed upon the retirement or death of a leader. Tensions, “breakaways,” and even lawsuits have ensued in connection with

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leadership transitions at shuls, yeshivot and even Chassidic dynasties.6 In many of these cases, advance planning may have alleviated or avoided the crisis. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to succession planning. Considerations vary between developing and mature organizations; national and local groups; broad-based communal organizations, such as shuls and day schools; and “private” enterprises, such as shtiebels and gemachs. Also, smaller Orthodox communities may have a limited local talent pool from which to recruit successors. However, I would argue that for organizations that desire to outlive their founders, there are two structural imperatives: 1) Clear lines of decisionmaking authority; and 2) A board or similar body that is independent from the CEO. Decisions regarding succession can be difficult, even wrenching, and often impossible if overlaid with arguments over who is authorized to decide. Some issues relevant to professional leadership succession are: 1. To what extent is the organization’s success and culture inherently connected to the current CEO? To what extent are donors’ commitments to the organization dependent on their relationship with the current CEO? 2. If the CEO departs, for how long can the organization survive until a replacement is found? 3. Is there an internal candidate? Has the CEO actively developed his or her replacement? Are the CEO and the board aligned on the readiness and qualifications of the heir apparent? 4. When is the leader likely to retire? What severance arrangements are in place to permit retirement? 5. Who are the decision makers? Do they reflect the organization’s constituency? 6. Is there a vision for what the next generation will look like? Larger organizations also need to plan for the perpetuation of lay leadership. At the OU, our constitution mandates term limits for officers, board members and committee chairmen. (Hence, the transition from Bane to Aeder.) This is designed to ensure a continuous influx of new talent and perspectives, and helps the OU reflect today’s Orthodox community rather than that of yesteryear. There are downsides to term limits, as some still vibrant and visionary leaders (and donors) will inevitably be pushed aside. This challenges us to find other avenues to keep former lay leaders engaged. While there is no one governance model that will work for every organization and situation, it is incumbent upon the lay and professional leadership of every Jewish communal institution to proactively plan for succession—and for success. The OU’s Impact Accelerator provides mentorship to selected promising communal start-ups. Part of this mentorship involves helping these organizations think about governance, long-term planning, and succession. I want to take the opportunity to thank my predecessor and mentor, Moishe Bane, for his thirty years of dedication to the Orthodox Union, the last six as president. Moishe is one of the greatest communal leaders of our generation. His selfless commitment to ensuring a smooth presidential transition is 8

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

just another example of his model leadership. It is said to be much easier for a new leader to replace a great leader than a weak one.7 If so, my job at the OU will be a breeze. We wish Moishe and Joanne good health as they continue to serve Klal Yisrael and the OU. Notes 1. Succession planning has been defined as “a deliberate and systematic effort by an organization to ensure leadership continuity in key positions, retain and develop intellectual and knowledge capital for the future and encourage individual advancement” (William Rothwell, Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity and Building Talent from Within [New York, 2001]). 2. The employees colloquially referred to this process as Project Bus. V’hameivin yavin. 3. A 2011 study not focused on the Jewish community concluded that “few nonprofits do anything toward succession planning” (“Succession planning in nonprofit organizations,” Froelich, McKee & Rathge, Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 22, no. 1 [Sept. 2011]). 4. Erica Brown summons Abraham-to-Isaac, Moses-to-Joshua and Elijah-to-Elisha as Biblical templates for models of succession planning. See Inspired Jewish Leadership: Practical Approaches to Building Strong Communities (Vermont, 2008), 191-201. 5. The OU’s Department of Synagogue Initiatives conducts seminars that teach shul boards about proper governance. 6. There is much discussion in halachic literature concerning the right of a rabbi or rosh yeshivah to pass his position to his son in certain circumstances. This is beyond the scope of this article. 7. See Inspired, 192.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

FROM THE DESK OF RABBI MOSHE HAUER

KI HEIM CHAYEINU— LIVING JEWISH

By Rabbi Moshe Hauer

he AIPAC conferences are designed to be powerful calls to action for activism on behalf of the US-Israel relationship, but it was at one of those conferences several years ago that I and a roomful of rabbis benefited from an even more powerful call to action for the religious Jewish future. Hundreds of rabbis who had brought synagogue delegations to the megaevent were being treated to a special session where two leading political journalists would discuss the Obama administration’s Middle Eastern policies. The first speaker, beginning with the admission that he could not resist the opportunity to sermonize to 600 rabbis, saluted us on engaging our congregants in the important work of AIPAC but proceeded to note that we needed to do much more. “It is great that you have all these people come here to Washington to build the Jewish Rabbi Moshe Hauer is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

state, but it is far more crucial that you encourage them to build their own Jewish homes.” He described how on the Jewish lecture circuit, leaders and activists would often introduce him to their adult children whom they had brought to the event, children who were usually quite obviously not Jewishly involved. As he saw it, the parents had made the tragic error of focusing their Jewish engagement on activities in ballrooms and convention centers instead of in their own kitchens and dining rooms around a Shabbat and dinner table. It was a striking and unexpected call to action, and it met its mark. After the session, I approached the journalist, who was not personally Orthodox, and expressed appreciation for his courage and insight. We spoke for a few moments, and he shared his concern for the Jewish future of his own children, then in university. While he and his wife had raised them around a Shabbat table, he wondered if they had integrated their Judaism enough to make it indispensable to their future lives. His insight reflects the ultimate Jewish call to action expressed in the twice-daily pledge of allegiance to G-d that we refer to as Keriat Shema: These words that I am instructing you today shall be upon your heart. You shall teach them to your children and discuss them when you are at home and when you travel, when you lie down to sleep and when you awaken in the morning. Bind them as a symbol on your arm, place them as an ornament between your eyes, and inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and upon your gates.1 For Judaism to stick, it cannot be a hobby relegated to a corner of our lives; it must be a way of life, an all-

encompassing experience. Ki heim chayeinu . . .

Immersive Experiences

The power of the immersive religious experience was deployed from the very beginning of Jewish history to establish and maintain our national and religious mission. Our connection to Torah was forged in the surreal environment of the desert where we lived arrayed around the House of G-d with our every physical need miraculously addressed, leaving us free to focus solely on G-d and His Torah. Subsequently, those charged with maintaining and building our connection to G-d and His Torah— the tribe of Levi—lived similarly immersive religious lives, liberated from material engagement by the support of the tithing system.2 Our Sages linked these two phenomena when they said that the Torah was specifically given to those who subsisted on the manna and afterwards to those who were supported by the terumah tithe.3 An annual super-immersion experience also provides the critical touchstone for our year-round religious engagement. Achat sha’alti mei’eit Hashem—“There is one thing I ask of G-d, it is all that I seek: to dwell in the house of G-d all the days of my life.” These words from Psalm 27 become our mantra during Elul and the Yamim Noraim, a time when—as any employer of observant Jews will attest—we basically live in shul. The power of that season spurs our religious growth and refreshes our connection and commitment to G-d, Torah and the Jewish people. Yet David yearned to dwell in the house of G-d all the days of his life, not only between Rosh Chodesh Elul and Shemini Atzeret. How do we relate to that aspiration? Whether out of a principled desire for engagement and influence or for practical reasons, we become immersed in the world outside of the house of G-d for most of the days of our lives. How can we do that while maintaining and strengthening

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the centrality of our own connection to G-d, Torah and the Jewish people? Torah provides us with three strategies to achieve this.

Default Jewish: Surrounded

Immersion defines the participant’s frame of reference from the outside in, positioning the immersed in a conducive or supportive environment. Rambam wrote, “It is the nature of man to be influenced by his peers and friends, conducting himself like the people among whom he lives. It is therefore necessary to choose to live in a community of wise and good people.”4 While we may idealize personal choice and motivation, we must realistically recognize the level to which we are influenced by those around us. The immersive environment is therefore often the safest choice. The growth of Orthodox Jewish life of every kind is significantly attributable to its immersive Jewish environments. As we do not drive on Shabbat, we locate ourselves in Jewish neighborhoods within walking distance of shuls. We frequent kosher stores, and send our children to Jewish schools, both for their educational curriculum and for the environment rich in Jewish values and friends. Our environments and social networks should be strategically chosen, crafted and invested in as they build the centrality of Jewishness to our core identity. That core identity— even absent inspiration or personal conviction—plays a significant role in helping maintain our Jewishness and values during the significant parts of our lives that are spent beyond the safety of the Jewish environment. Nevertheless, a default Jewish identity is profoundly vulnerable. While research on immersive Jewish experiences shows that even relatively brief experiences in total Jewish settings have a lifetime impact,5 where Jewish identity rests on external association alone, it may be undermined by an experience of reverse immersion in an environment hostile or indifferent to Jewish values.

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Doing Jewish: Punctuated

A second critical strategy is to maintain a high level of “doing Jewish.” A classic Talmudic debate6 considers whether the instruction G-d gave to Yehoshua that “the Torah not leave his mouth” and that he engage in it “day and night”7 requires literally constant Torah study or whether it is fulfilled by frequent touchpoints with Torah. Jewish identity is strengthened by maximizing those touchpoints through engagement in Torah, tefillah and other Jewish behaviors. The Sages dramatically affirmed the critical value of punctuating our daily routines with religious activity when they established our current mode of prayer. Until the Anshei Knesset Hagedolah instituted a specific text and schedule for prayers, people prayed whenever and in whatever way they wanted to. The introduction of the siddur was a radical change that arguably rendered prayer one of our great religious challenges. Imagine the delicious beauty of confining prayer to one’s own words during inspired moments! Instead, we now struggle mightily to bring meaning and emotional connection to the regular repetition of someone else’s script. Evidently the Sages understood the immense value of consistent religious touchpoints. Inspired connection is incredible but also unpredictable. As challenging and dry as regimented prayer may be prone to becoming, there is immense value to beginning, ending and punctuating our days by formally checking in with our G-d, our faith and our values. Another expression of this can be seen in Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin’s remarkable understanding of Rabban Gamliel’s observation that “yafeh talmud Torah im derech eretz—Torah study is beautiful when it comes together with gainful work.”8 To Rav Chaim, this refers to the person whose mind continues to consider the texts studied early in the morning even while later engaged in his work. Rabban Gamliel understood the danger of sequestering our engagement with Torah study within the religious environment and urged us to bring it

Our OU-JLIC educators are remarkably successful with the vast majority of their students, but we as a community are unsuccessful with the majority of our students. into the rest of our lives, punctuating our workdays with it. And while it may have been more realistic and responsible to “think in learning” when work meant plowing a field than it is to do so while engaged in today’s more intellectual economy, taking breaks to “lunch and learn” is a meaningful way to achieve a similar result. A current initiative called “Toraso b’Umnaso” has the ambitious goal of encouraging Jewish businesses and professional offices to incorporate times and spaces for Torah study and classes within the work setting, providing the dual benefits of uplifting the workplace and punctuating the days of those present with Torah study.

Defined Jewish: Inspired

The ultimate strategy however relies not on external environments or touchpoints but on an engagement with Torah that defines and informs our every other activity in all environments. This approach may be best illustrated by a classic resolution to a halachic dilemma. We are typically required to make berachot before fulfilling mitzvot, and to repeat the berachah when we return to perform it again after an interruption. Thus, one who made a berachah before having breakfast in the sukkah is required to repeat the berachah when returning to the sukkah for lunch. The exception to this is Birkat HaTorah, the blessing we make before we first study Torah in the morning and do not repeat when we return to its study at any later point during the day. The Tosafists9 raised this question and answered it in the mold of Rabbi Chaim

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Volozhin, suggesting very idealistically that the imperative of constant Torah study is such that the student’s mind remains preoccupied with it even when not formally studying. Beit Yosef quotes the Sefer Ha’Agur who suggested a more accessible resolution to this question. The blessing made here is not to study Torah but to engage in its words, la’asok b’divrei Torah. This engagement is fulfilled by taking the words and ideas that we study and using them to inform and define our lives and activities. Our engagement with Torah is continuous and uninterrupted when the Torah we study proceeds to chart our way of life, the way we care for family and community, the integrity we bring to our work, the pleasantness with which we interact with others, and the framework to apply our values to the full array of contemporary issues. This approach goes beyond the engineering of external environments and support systems and the inclusion of Jewish and religious activity and routines. In this model, our Judaism becomes truly all-encompassing such that we come to “recognize G-d in whatever we do and allow Him to direct our way of life.”10

Ramifications: The Yeshivah Day School Graduate

How can our day school graduates succeed Jewishly and faithfully beyond the immersive Jewish environment of their school and community, when they are not dwelling in the house of G-d all the days of their lives? The same way we do. They must strategically choose and maintain a religiously healthy and supportive environment and social network, punctuate their lives with engagement in Torah, tefillah and other Jewish behaviors, and be both equipped and committed to apply the Torah they learn to the lives they live. These values and practical strategies lead many to choose to continue their education in a post-high school Jewish institution to both grow their Jewish learning and commitment as well as delay their transition out of an immersive Jewish environment. Many others choose to be educated in a secular university. This is challenging not only due to the change from a Jewish school, but additionally because the non-commuter student on campus lacks a Jewish home and communal environment. It was for these students that OU-JLIC—the Orthodox Union’s Heshe and Harriet Seif Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus—was created. Presently on twenty-eight university campuses in North America and Israel with significant Orthodox populations, OU-JLIC places rabbinic couples who create a Jewish home on campus—an immersive Jewish environment—within a secular campus environment. These inspiring educators work to help young men and women on campus thrive Jewishly by forming meaningful and lasting personal relationships with them and by facilitating consistent religious touchpoints on campus, including daily minyanim, shiurim and beit midrash learning, and Shabbat and yom tov meals. Most of all, with their dedication to communal service, they serve as role models of an encompassing commitment to Jewish life, ki heim chayeinu.

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

Our OU-JLIC educators are remarkably successful with the vast majority of their students, but we as a community are unsuccessful with the majority of our students. Unfortunately, the majority of Orthodox day school graduates who choose to continue their education in secular campus environments do not seek out a religious community or mentor on campus and are not punctuating their campus lives with communal Torah study and tefillah. This is hardly a strategy for success, and it is something that all of us—parents, educators, and the community—must move to change. It is vital that the young people entering the secular university environment are the most prepared and committed to deal with its challenges. Ki heim chayeinu. Torah is not a hobby; it is life itself. When we grant it that place in our lives, both we and the Torah will be strong enough to thrive in any environment. Notes 1. Devarim 6:6-9. 2. See Rambam, Hilchot Shemitah and Yovel (13:12-13). 3. Mechilta Shemot 16:4. 4. Rambam, Hilchot Deiot 6:1. 5. See, for instance, the recent Impact: NPO study of Masa participants, https://www.masaisrael.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/ Israel-Immersion-Masa-pdf.pdf. 6. Menachot 99b. 7. Yehoshua 1:8. 8. Pirkei Avot 2:2, Ruach Chaim. 9. Berachot 11b, d.h. She’kvar. 10. As expressed in Mishlei 3:6, “Bechol derachecha da’eihu v’hu yeyasher orchotecha.” See Rambam, Deiot 3:3.

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BEING AN

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KOSHER CONSUMER

By Rabbi Moshe Elefant

or thousands of years of Jewish life, the options for kosher food were necessarily limited to what was produced locally. People knew their town’s shochet and baker personally and could rely on these close relationships. Today, however, the lifestyle of observant Jews as it relates to food is very different from what it was at any other point in Jewish history. I can remember a time when people who kept kosher had a simple diet. If a young person today would go back in time even forty years, he would never believe how much more basic the kosher options were. The kosher consumer’s level of expectation has changed dramatically in recent decades. Fortunately, the community as a whole has very high standards of kashrus, but on the other hand, it now has equally high expectations of what we want to eat. OU Kosher has created a sophisticated enterprise to ensure that there will be reliably kosher food easily available across Rabbi Moshe Elefant is COO of OU Kosher. 16

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

North America and even worldwide. We run a huge operation, certifying more than 14,000 facilities in all fifty US states and in 106 other countries. We’re proud of the service we provide to the community, and we stand behind our supervision. After the costs of salaries and overhead are deducted, all profit is directly invested in the OU’s nationwide youth and community programs, such as NCSY and Yachad. Since no one is gaining personally, we have no problem saying no to a company if it cannot meet our requirements 100 percent. That’s something that makes the OU stand out from most other kosher certifiers. At this time of year, it’s worthwhile for the community to have an appreciation of what’s involved in certifying the kosher for Passover food they will be enjoying. We require full-time supervision of any food production bearing an OU-P. Months and months before Pesach, our rabbinic field representatives travel to many remote locations, away from their families for weeks at a time, all to ensure that kosher consumers have the food they need and have come to expect. It can also be valuable for kosher consumers to realize that while the goal of OU Kosher is to make sure there are more and more Pesach products available—because we know that’s what people want—our own high standards can sometimes work against us. We used to see packages that were labeled “Kosher for Passover and Year Round.” This simplified things for companies, allowing them to print one label and perform one production run. Nowadays, companies don’t put that on the package anymore, because consumers don’t want to buy an item with that label after Pesach since they perceive that it is “old.” Unfortunately, if manufacturers are left with stock that becomes worthless the day after Passover,

they aren’t going to make that product at all the following year. With the continuous growth of the kosher food market, it is imperative for the kosher consumer to stay informed about kashrus and take an active role in its observance. Too often, people assume “it’s the rabbi’s responsibility” or “the mashgiach is paying attention, so I don’t have to.” But kashrus is G-d’s diet, and each one of us must do due diligence to follow that diet as carefully as we can. To illustrate how important this is, there was a case of a woman who bought twenty-four rolls of frozen gefilte fish from a Pesach store. Only after cooking them did she notice that the package wasn’t marked kosher for Pesach as she had assumed it was. Unfortunately, it was all chametz. So there she was, right before Pesach, with pots and pans that had become chametzdik and no fish to serve to her many guests. What a headache, which could easily have been avoided by carefully checking the label beforehand. We do tremendous work certifying products, but we cannot send a mashgiach along for every customer. People need to pay attention. At OU Kosher, we field many thousands of calls annually with kashrus-related questions. The volume of calls increases significantly as people prepare for Pesach, and we have a team of rabbis dedicated to answering these questions. The most common question we get is whether a particular product needs to be certified kosher for Pesach. In many cases, the person calling has a specific need for that product—for a baby or for someone who is unwell, for example. The team at OU Kosher will do the research to understand what the potential issues are with the ingredients. For example, if the item contains kitniyot, there can be room for leniency for Ashkenazim if it’s for a child or for an adult who’s unwell. However, at other times, it seems the person is asking because he simply isn’t willing to do without the product, which is not the attitude of someone who takes responsibility for his own kashrus observance. Some consumers will read the ingredient list on a product that is kosher year round, and finding nothing they think should be problematic, they call to

In this day and age, kashrus is a highly complex business, and reading labels just doesn’t tell the whole story. ask if they can use it on Pesach. But there are many issues regarding what a product is made of, and how it is made, that the consumer does not know. Along the same lines, we often hear of people assuming that an OU-D label on a product means only that it was manufactured on dairy equipment and they can go ahead and enjoy the food on the assumption that it’s really pareve. But they could be making a serious kashrus error because they are not aware that a machine can impart its dairy status to a product, or that the ingredients may include flavors that could be dairy. We hear similar stories of consumers assuming that fruit juice doesn’t need to have a hechsher because they don’t realize that it could include grape juice, which

brings with it a whole host of issues. In this day and age, kashrus is a highly complex business, and reading labels just doesn’t tell the whole story. In a different type of scenario, we have heard several stories recently of complicated kashrus issues that have come up at fundraisers or parlor meetings. In some large frum communities, such events are held several times a week, so in order to attract attendance, everyone is trying to do something different—to serve something special, to stand out from the crowd. In one instance, the host of a melaveh malkah saw the caterer unloading sushi for his event right after Shabbos, and it looked very fresh. Fortunately, he was paying attention and asked when it had been made. The caterer told him he had

non-Jews come to his facility on Shabbos to prepare it. There are so many issues with that—from the possibility of bishul akum [cooking by a non-Jew], to not having a mashgiach present to check the type of fish, et cetera. Simply put, the sushi being delivered by this kosher caterer was not reliably kosher. At a different event, foie gras was on the menu, which is not available with a trustworthy hashgachah in the US. Did the guests think to ask where it came from? The more people seek out specialty foods, and the higher our expectations become, the greater pressure there is on kosher businesses and kosher certifications to figure out how to provide these foods. And while the OU will always remain loyal to its values and will always insist on its standards, it is incumbent on each and every one of us to be informed kosher consumers—for Pesach and all year round.

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Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Centennial Spotlight Nathan K. Gross 1911-1985

By Rabbi Julius Berman With 2023 marking 100 years of OU Kosher, throughout the year, Jewish Action will profile personalities who played a seminal role in building OU Kosher, the largest and most widely recognized certifying agency. We hope to focus on Rabbi Berel Wein and Rabbi Yacov Lipschutz in a future issue. The article below is adapted from a profile that appeared in the spring 1998 edition of Jewish Action.

usiness in the Orthodox Union Kosher Division is booming. The phones are ringing off the hook and e-mails are piling up, as each day brings in more and more applications for OU certification. Our multimillion-dollar computer system is in place, and the programmers are entering the kashrut status of thousands of ingredients. Hundreds of mashgichim are out inspecting manufacturing plants located in countries all over the world. The ubiquitous OU symbol can be found on thousands of products almost anywhere one travels. Many of the largest and best-known brands—Nabisco, General Mills, Nestle, Hershey’s, M&M and Coca-Cola, to name a few—are tied to the OU symbol. How did all this come about? It can safely be said that one man, with unique ability, dedication and persistence, consumed with a sense of mission, played the leading role in the development of kashrut certification, first in America and then throughout the world. That man was Nathan K. Gross, z”l. Nat was born in Brooklyn on June 16, 1911. His father was American-born and his mother came to the US as a Rabbi Julius Berman is a former president of the OU and a former chairman of the OU Kashruth Commission. 18

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

small child. Nat was college educated and had a law degree. He played a significant role in a wide range of communal activities. For example, he served for many years as the president of Congregation Ohab Zedek in Manhattan and was deeply involved in supporting Beis Avrohom, the Slonimer Yeshivah in Israel. He was also very close to the Slonimer Rebbe. But the crowning achievement of his communal labors was unquestionably his critical contribution to establishing kashrut supervision in America on a solid basis during the years between 1950 and 1984, when he served as chairman of the OU’s Kashruth Commission. The name Nathan K. Gross is inextricably linked for all time with the growth of kashrut certification. Nat—or, as he was popularly referred to, “Mr. Kashrut”—was a legend in his time. And yet, the shidduch between Nat and kashrut was odd, to say the least. It surely does not appear, at least on the surface, to have been a match made in heaven. For all his wisdom, Nat had little formal religious education. The sophisticated and detailed intricacies of the laws of kashrut were not part of his academic upbringing. Nor, for that matter, did any phase of his education, either formal or informal, touch on the increasingly complicated field of food technology. Moreover, the protracted contract negotiations with prospective companies applying for certification, as well as the constant soothing of egos that was required in his position as

Nat Gross, z”l. Courtesy of Jack Gross

chairman of the OU’s Joint Kashruth Commission for so many years, seemed to contradict his activist personality. But when we delve beneath the surface, it becomes evident that Nat’s unique talents, combined with his understanding of the special needs of kashrut certification, were the perfect fit to meet the challenges facing the American Jewish community in the mid-twentieth century. To appreciate this apparent anomaly, we have to travel back to the ‘40s and ‘50s and take an honest look at the status of kashrut in America at that time. There was virtually no kashrut supervision, and even when there was, anarchy often prevailed. The certification process was in large part— but, fortunately, not entirely—in the hands of individuals who were less than models of knowledge, commitment or integrity. One need not be an expert in

the laws of kashrut to sense the cynicism concerning kashrut certification in both the manufacturing and consumer areas that were all too prevalent in the kosher food market. Nat accepted the challenge and made it his task to bring order and integrity to the process. With his characteristic clarity of vision, he recognized the enormous impact the availability of kosher products could have on an emerging Orthodox Jewish community. On a personal basis, Nat concluded that kashrut was the perfect vehicle through which he could express his love of his people and his religion along with his vision of a dynamic age of Jewish communal ascendency in America.

To this task, Nat brought his very considerable gifts of energy, integrity, patience and the rare quality of diplomacy. It was as a diplomat that he was at his best. It was a joy to sit back and watch him apply this G-d-given talent—an art that he had developed over the years—to the personalities on all sides of the table. Whether it was the rabbinical personage who held one view, the manufacturing representatives sitting across from him or the manufacturing plant manager who approached the negotiating table with trepidation and concern that some black-frocked, bearded rabbi quoting ancient, foreign tomes was going to hamstring his plant routine and make life unbearable, Nat

was equipped for the challenge. His style was unique: more compromise than confrontation but always bearing in mind the goal he wished to achieve. When the subject was a halachic matter, he was stolidly unyielding, impacted in large part by his awe of Torah learning. But at the same time, he had an almost radar-like instinct for knowing when to defer to rabbinical authority and when to separate politics and administration from the spiritual. Nat Gross, in his own way, was a gadol hador. His work left a lasting impression on Jewish communal life, and the community will remain forever in his debt.

Nathan Gross was the chair of the OU’s Kashruth Commission for many years. He was an astute businessman of deep integrity who refused to allow the OU’s decisions to be tainted by financial considerations. When I came to the OU, he was the elder statesman who guided us, and his advice was always on target. Everyone who met him immediately saw his great dignity; he was the consummate gentleman. At the time I took on the position of rabbinic administrator of the OU Kosher Division, our most significant company was Procter & Gamble. Each year, we would meet with Marshall Pollock, an executive at Procter & Gamble, to negotiate our contract for the coming year. I could see how highly Marsh regarded Nat—his dignity and intelligence shone through. He was the essential piece in this partnerships and in many others the OU developed. The growth of the OU over the last decades would not have been possible without Nat Gross’s leadership. —Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO, OU Kosher

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Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz, Chabad shaliach for Kharkiv, shows a community member how to don tefillin tefillin.. Courtesy of Chabad.org

The Torah Revival in Ukraine When the war broke out in Ukraine, many were surprised to discover the existence of a growing and vibrant teshuvah movement in Ukraine. How did it come about? By Steve Lipman

Photo: Mendy Hechtman/Flash90

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

J E W I S H WO R L D

all it a knockout punch by a Kyiv rabbi. A decade ago, twelveyear-old Constantin Vaskovskiy, an age-group boxing champion and a member of a typical Jewish family in his native Ukraine, was invited to a Jewish camp by a Chabad shaliach. Vaskovskiy wasn’t interested. “I needed to train” for future matches. “Boxing was my whole life,” says Vaskovskiy, now twenty-three. The shaliach who had befriended his family convinced Vaskovskiy to attend the end-of-summer program, a sevenand-a-half-hour trip from Kyiv. Still, the tween was skeptical. “I thought religious people were boring.” Instead, at the three-week camp, he met counselors from the US who broke the stereotype. “They were so cool. They knew how to laugh.” At the camp, Vaskovskiy began a process that led to his becoming an Orthodox Jew. He began davening regularly, wearing a kippah and tzitzit, keeping Shabbat, and adopting a kosher diet. At the camp, he underwent a brit milah. His own choice. He called his mother to discuss the circumcision. “My mom said, ‘No way!’” He did it anyway. “Me and another five guys.” At the camp, he started using the Hebrew name Aron. His choice again. His mother, who was proudly Jewish but was raised in a secular home, and his father, who was not Jewish, had not given him a Hebrew name. The campers had learned about Aharon HaKohen. “I liked how the name sounded,” he says. Back home, Aron was “excited about Judaism.” He insisted on eating strictly kosher. “I’m not cooking [separately] for you,” his mother said. She ended up preparing kosher meals for her son. He insisted on enrolling in a Jewish school. “My Mom said, ‘No way!’” He ended up dorming in a Jewish school in Dnipro.

Eventually, he spent four years studying Torah in Israel and received semichah. His mother took on an observant lifestyle, and his older brother, who had also originally been resistant to an Orthodox life, became a Chabad shaliach in Ukraine. Today, Aron is thoroughly Orthodox, but he has not forgotten his Ukrainian roots. Temporarily in the US, Aron, who wears a lightbrown “Dnipro” yarmulke on his head, currently lives in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn. [Dnipro is Ukraine’s fourth-largest city.]

By no means have all Ukrainian Jews embraced a Torah lifestyle, but many, the country’s Jewish leaders say, are more respectful, more open to learning about Jewish tradition and more involved in Jewish programming. Just as elsewhere behind the former Iron Curtain (in Eastern Europe and the other now-independent republics of the former Soviet Union [FSU]), Ukraine, a land that gave birth to countless Chassidic rabbis and Orthodox shtetls, has experienced a Jewish renaissance—of wider Jewish culture as well as traditional

Jewish Ukraine is a different place today than it was thirty years ago. A lot has changed. Aron’s story is of course unique, but as a Jew from Ukraine, a newcomer to a life of Torah and mitzvot, he has plenty of company. He knows “a lot of ba’alei teshuvah” from similar backgrounds. “Everyone has a different story,” says Aron. Which is largely the story of postCommunist Ukrainian Jewry. Since Communism fell in his homeland three decades ago and open expression of Judaism became permitted there, the country has filled with Artems and Bohdans and Olenas and Nadiyas who have become ba’alei teshuvah and have taken on Jewish names. They fill the seats of invigorated synagogues and schools, serve as volunteers and paid employees in the Jewish organizations that formed when post-Communism permitted religious life and have embraced the type of Judaism of which their parents and grandparents were deprived by the godlessness of Communism.

Judaism—since 1991. (These spiritual changes reflect changes in many other parts of society: in politics, the economy, and even in the spelling of the names of several Ukrainian cities, an assertion of Ukrainian individuality—Kiev became Kyiv; Kharkov, Kharkiv; Lvov, Lviv and so on.) In the aftermath of the breakup of the FSU, the Jewish communities of each of the fifteen republics that became independent nations (as well as the subsequent Jewish revival in each place) were largely treated as a monolith. People abroad spoke of “Russian Jews” and “Soviet Jews” interchangeably, often including those of the entire USSR, many of whom loudly rejected being identified as Russian. Indeed, the various Jewish communities are not identical to each other, and in the years that followed, Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Children in Kharkiv’s Ohr Avner Jewish School, under the auspices of Rabbi Moshe and Rebbetzin Miriam Moskovitz. Photos courtesy of chabad.org, unless indicated otherwise

especially in this last year since Russia’s war against Ukraine began, the distinct nature of Ukraine’s Jewish community and its growth of Torah Judaism have become clearer. Though all the ex-Communist nations share some common features, the Jewish revival in Ukraine is not the same as in Russia, Belarus, Lithuania, et cetera. “There was absolutely nothing when we got there [in 1990],” at least no open, extant Jewish infrastructure, says Rebbetzin Miriam Moskovitz, a native of Australia who came to Kharkiv with her Venezuelan-born husband, Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz. “This was a spiritual desert,” says David Margolin, senior editor at Chabad.org, who has visited Ukraine extensively in the last decade and interviewed many of its residents, as well as its rabbis and rebbetzins. In

some communities, there was “nothing on the ground,” except for “a minyan of old men.” The Jews there had little Jewish knowledge, beyond familiarity with the names of some prominent Jews and antisemites of the past, Margolin says. “They also knew about matzah”—even during the darkest days of Communism, many Jews in the FSU had made an effort to obtain a supply of matzah for Passover. And now? Ukraine is now home to two generations of Orthodox Jews and a full gamut of Orthodox life. “[Jewish] Ukraine is a different place today than it was thirty years ago,” says Margolin. “A lot has changed.” He points to the successful 2017 presidential candidacy of Volodymyr Zelensky, who in December 2022 was named Time magazine’s Person

There were no more than fifty observant Jews in the country. Today? There are probably between 7,000 and 8,000.” 22

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of the Year. Zelensky’s ethnic identity was a non-issue during the election, which is surprising considering the country’s previous association with antisemitism. Across Ukraine (as well as its sister Soviet republics), where Communism had flourished during seven decades of atheistic, antisemitic rule, the first blooms of Yiddishkeit were visible in the early 1990s. As tens of thousands of Ukrainian Jews immigrated to freedom in Israel, the United States and other Western countries (whence has come the financial support for the extensive and expensive Jewish programs and sites in Ukraine), the Jews who remained behind in their homeland began to rebuild their own spiritual lives with the growth of a flourishing Jewish community and the establishment of a wide variety of Jewish institutions and organizations in cities big and small. All this was under the guidance of foreign-born rabbis and their spouses, mostly Chassidic, predominantly Chabad-Lubavitch—some of whom, assigned by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, had arrived in 1990 before the republic achieved its independence— Continued on page 26

Albert Reichmann, z”l:

Working behind the Scenes to Bring Jewry Back By Steve Lipman

n the decade before Communism fell in the Soviet Union and its satellite countries in Eastern Europe, when Jewish education was forbidden, a group of like-minded members of the Orthodox communities in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel quietly began bringing Yiddishkeit to the Jews behind the Iron Curtain. Shlichim sent by the loose networks of Torah activists would clandestinely meet with Jews who took the risk to learn about their heritage. One outgrowth of the activities of these visitors is what is now known as the Shema Yisrael Network, an umbrella organization that includes forty-five projects in the former Soviet Union (including Ukraine) and Eastern Europe. Shema Yisrael’s activities, usually administered outside of public view, are conducted throughout the region (largely in coordination with Chabad) and remain among the major contributors to the growth of Torah observance in the former Communist countries. Since Russia’s war in Ukraine started a year ago, Shema Yisrael has assisted in the rescue and resettlement of members of the Jewish community. For those who remain in Ukraine, Shema Yisrael and the Vaad Hatzalah—with significant assistance from the OU and Chabad—continue to provide such lifesaving items as generators, food and clothing. The organization’s low-key style was the path followed by the late Albert

Reichmann, z”l, of the famed Reichmann family of real estate developers, a philanthropist who served as Shema Yisrael’s founding chairman and one of its major financial supporters and philosophical guides. Reichmann, a Vienna-born Toronto resident and Holocaust refugee, who passed away at the age of ninety-three this past December, was a self-effacing man who agreed to media interviews almost exclusively when publicity promoted Jewish interests, says Rabbi Shlomo Noach Mandel, executive director of the Jewish Education Program outreach organization in Toronto and executive director of Shema Yisrael. Similarly, he says, the leaders of Shema Yisrael do not seek publicity. “The people who need to know about it know.” Rabbi Mandel, who took part in a kiruv mission to three Soviet cities about forty years ago and found his time there to be a “transformative experience,” says Reichmann played an active role in assisting Ukrainian Jewry by visiting Ukraine and other former Communist countries several times. Reichmann used his business and political connections to lobby on behalf of Jews throughout the Soviet Empire, leveraging his influence with world figures on behalf of unknown Jews. As chairman of the Canada-Russia Trade Commission, Reichmann would bring the plight of refuseniks, those denied emigration permits, to the attention of

Students at Beis Aharon School in Pinsk, a boarding school and orphanage for boys and girls, take JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023 part 24 in a mock Seder. Courtesy of Yad Yisroel/Shema Yisrael Schools

Courtesy of the Reichmann family/Malka Wolman

Russian authorities; he was acting as the public face of the “Jews of Silence” (as coined by Elie Wiesel in his 1966 book). Reichmann posed for photos with refuseniks, ensured that an endangered Moscow yeshivah could remain open, obtained permission for synagogues to be refurbished and mikvaot to be constructed and arranged for flour for matzah to be sent and for matzah bakeries to be built. According to a recent article in the Yated Ne’eman, “there are over 10,000 Jewish children enrolled in Jewish day schools in the former Soviet Union” that were established because of the influence of Shema Yisrael and its partners in Chabad and ORT. Reichmann’s son Efraim and his siblings “continue to assist the vast network of Shema Yisrael schools that were founded over the years.” How effective has the work of Shema Yisrael been? Over the decades, Rabbi Mandel estimates, the organization’s stream of rabbis and other volunteer educators in Ukraine have touched the lives of “thousands” of Ukrainian Jews. “I don’t have an exact count. No one counted, but every individual indeed ‘counts.’” A more important question, the rabbi says, is “How much work is left to do there?” Many Jews of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, deprived of unfettered Jewish education opportunities during seven decades of Communist rule, still require Shema Yisrael’s remedial activities, he says. “We want every Yid [there] to have the opportunity to come back to Yiddishkeit. We have work to do.” Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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who came to Ukraine as young, freshly ordained yeshivah students and have grown middle-aged; they are now prominent, highly visible and politically influential figures in their respective cities. This was in a country whose estimated Jewish population of 200,00 to 400,000 (according to various Jewish sources) ranks among the largest in the world; a significant part of Ukraine had lain within the borders of the Russian Empire’s Pale of Settlement, which was home to much of the world’s Jewish population, with Jews having been permitted to reside there for nearly 130 years until World War I. The signs of rebirth were evident immediately. A 1995 article in the Washington Post described “a brisk revival of Jewish life in Ukraine . . . three years after the Soviet Union’s collapse, synagogues and Jewish schools and social programs are sprouting again in Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa and other cities.” Observers of Ukrainian Jewry have witnessed these changes in the country’s Jewish life. According to the best estimates, there were no more than fifty fully observant Jews in the country in 1991. Today? There are probably between 7,000 and 8,000. How do you find Jews who were afraid to openly identify themselves as Jewish during decades of Communist rule? One veteran shaliach said he would see “a Yiddishe panim [Jewish face] … on the street, on the tram” and strike up a conversation. Eventually, the initial wariness dissipated; then their interest in Judaism grew. “People saw that Yiddishkeit is not just about a history of persecution. ‘I want to be part of this,’” they told him. The rabbinic couples who have settled in Ukraine tell a story that is common in the region’s onceCommunist countries: of hidden Jews seemingly coming out of the woodwork, of men and women discovering their Jewish roots late in life, of the size of Jewish communities remaining constant no matter how many Jews have left for overseas. 26

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Rebbetzin Moskovitz keeps meeting these people. “New Jews,” she calls them. Rebbetzin Esther Wilhelm, who came to Zhitomir twenty-eight years ago with her husband Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm as a Chabad shlichim couple, has transformed the small, “sleepy” town into a vibrant center of Jewish life. Zhitomir now offers a synagogue, an elementary and high school and the Alumim Educational Campus that serves children from troubled homes. “When we first came to Zhitomir, Jews had no idea what it means to be a Jew,” Rebbetzin Wilhelm says, “They didn’t understand Shabbos or kashrus.” The couple wanted to put on a Lag BaOmer parade—a common Lubavitch custom—their first year there, “But the people were scared,” she says. “They said: we are going to walk down the street and people are going to see that we are Jewish?” Zhitomir had its Lag BaOmer parade. “We needed to give them a sense of Jewish pride,” the Rebbetzin says. “Now when we have our Lag BaOmer parades, hundreds of Jews join us walking down the street. They are so proud. There’s been a complete turnaround.” Because of the danger in Ukraine since the war started in early 2022, the Wilhelms have temporarily relocated to Israel, along with 150 Jews from their community. Some other Chabad shlichim have also left Ukraine, for safer venues, in the last year, while many have remained there. Other leaders of Ukrainian Jewry in the last three decades have included: • Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Bald, a native of New York, and his wife Sarah, Karlin-Stolin Chassidim based in Lviv. When Rabbi Bald, who mastered the Ukrainian language, first moved to Lviv thirty years ago, he started a school that closed a few years ago and a number of educational programs. • Rabbi Shlomo Baksht, a native of Israel, who founded the Tikva Children’s Home and the Jewish University of Odessa. Tikva,

Children’s Home, founded in 1997, aids about 800 orphans. • Meylakh Sheykhet, a Ukrainianborn activist based in Lviv, who serves as the country’s director of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union (UCSJ). The Moskovitzes are a good example of leaders who have fostered the rebirth of Torah observance in Ukraine. For their first six months in Kharkiv, their home was a rat-infested hotel. Newly married and idealistic, they were assigned responsibility for the city’s seven-story Choral Synagogue (a sports club during the Communist era), which had recently been returned by the city to the Jewish community. The couple’s first step the day after they arrived was Friday night Shabbat services: “Come and meet the new rabbi.” The Moskovitzes expected a few Kharkiv Jews to show up. “More than 1,000 people came to meet us,” says Rebbetzin Moskovitz. And they kept coming back to daven. “Little by little they came, and things started to get better,” Rabbi Moskovitz says. The interest in learning about Judaism was immediately apparent, notes Rebbetzin Moskovitz. Her husband announced a meeting that subsequent Monday morning to discuss setting up a Sunday school. “I came into the shul the next day with a few markers and some papers I had prepared,” she says. “There were 150 children waiting for me.” That week, fifteen young men enrolled full time in Kharkiv’s first yeshivah since before World War II. In 1992, the couple opened the Ohr Avner Jewish Day School, which slowly grew as well. After the disillusionment of the discreditation of Communism, “people were hungry for some true spirituality,” says Rebbetzin Moskovitz. Now—at least before the war disrupted everything—Kharkiv is a fully functioning Jewish community, she says, with worship services, education for adults and children, summer camps, a mikvah, holiday celebrations, et cetera.

The signs of an assertive Orthodox life, say the now thoroughly Ukrainianized rabbis who have guided the country’s Jewish renaissance, are everywhere. • The men in the pews of the constantly full synagogues are typically young, in their twenties and thirties—not the elderly, graying survivors of Communism (and often of Nazism) who were often the only members of a minyan when the restrictions on religion were lifted in the 1990s. • The number of women in the country who regularly light Shabbat candles on Friday night has grown from fifty at most, to 10,000, maybe even 12,000, according to some. • An estimated tens of thousands of Jewish newborn boys and adult men have undergone circumcisions. • More Jews wear kippot and Magen Davids in public. • At least four dozen Ukrainian Jews, now fully observant, have become Chabad shlichim themselves, spreading Yiddishkeit in several countries, according to Rebbetzin Moskovitz. “That is a major success,” she says. 28

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• The twelve-acre Menorah campus in Dnipro, which includes schools, the historic Golden Rose Synagogue, museums, art galleries, shopping space, a luxury hotel and kosher restaurants and cafes, is described as the largest Jewish center of its kind in the world. • A spirit of respectful competition now marks parts of Ukrainian Jewry—among men claiming the title of chief rabbi, and among organizations offering kashrut supervision services. As in the West, no single rabbi, hashgachah organization, or shul holds a monopoly in its geographical area. “When we first came,” says Rebbetzin Wilhelm, “reaching out and teaching wasn’t so difficult—a lot of older people had memories. They remembered their religious grandparents. They spoke Yiddish.” During a lesson about the Pesach Seder one senior citizen said she remembered opening the door to Eliyahu HaNavi as a kid. “A lot of young people who go through the school in Zhitomir end up marrying Jewish and moving to Israel or other [larger] Jewish communities,” she says.

The Jews of Ukraine have proven open to learning about their heritage. The leaders of Ukrainian Jewry point to a unique feature of the Jewish community. When Ukrainian Jews first learn an important lesson about doing a mitzvah, “they ask, ‘What do I have to do, and how do I do it?’” says Rebbetzin Moskovitz. Another veteran shaliach says the typical Ukrainian Jew is driven less by intellectual searching and more by simple faith than the typical Russian Jew. Discussions with outreachoriented rabbinic colleagues in Ukraine and Russia, indicate that Russian Jews are likely to demand extensive explanations for Jewish beliefs and for the requirements of Torah observance. “A Ukrainian Jew will simply ask, ‘What does G-d want me to do?’ You’ll never hear a Russian Jew ask that. The Russian Yidden are more intellectual—they want answers.” In other words, emunah often comes first for Ukrainian Jews, making them likely to accept the beliefs of Torah Judaism without long preliminary discussions. What is the first step for people trying to revitalize a Jewish community? “There is no guidebook,” no template for shlichim, says Rebbetzin Moskovitz. “Each shaliach is basically on his [or her] own.” The success stories of the men and women who have pumped new life into Ukrainian Jewry share some common elements. A hit-the-groundrunning attitude. An early emphasis on education. A high-visibility approach . . . after Judaism was in the shadows for seventy years. Friendship with government authorities. Outreach to every member of a family. And an insistence on presenting a classy face of Yiddishkeit, reflected in the buildings they have renovated. Respect for Orthodox Judaism, and for the imported Orthodox leaders, has grown since Russia’s war in Ukraine began in early 2022. While some of the rabbinic couples left temporarily for safer venues outside of Ukraine, many remained with their flocks.

Next year in Jerusalem….

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One day before the war with Russia broke out, some of the 400 students at Ohr Avner celebrated the school’s thirtieth anniversary.

What is the outlook for Ukraine’s Jewish spiritual revival once the current war eventually ends, and the Jews—those who have not made new homes in their communities of exile—return to Ukraine? “The community is going to change,” Rebbetzin Moskovitz says. Fewer Jews will likely be in Kharkiv than before the war began. They will continue the Jewish activities in which they participated since the 1990s, she says. “Jewish life will always be. Maybe its scale will be smaller.” Aron, now married to a young US-born woman from a Chabad background, has lived in Crown Heights the last four years. He spends his days learning. He boxes to keep in shape, but hopes for a career in business (“to be an entrepreneur”) or in shlichut. Maybe, he says, he can combine both ambitions. Maybe he’ll return to Ukraine and share his love of Judaism with young Ukrainian Jews. Or maybe he’ll open a yeshivah in the US for young Jewish men from Ukraine and other former Soviet republics “who don’t want to become rabbis.” Either way, he wants to keep the spiritual revival of Ukraine’s Jews going. “I saw the impact Orthodox teachers and role models can have,” says Aron. “I’d love to show people that you can lead a meaningful Jewish life and enjoy life.”

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Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Above, left: Unloading supplies donated by the London Jewish community via the OU/GIFT initiative. Above, right: The OU coordinated the purchase and distribution of high-powered generators to Jewish communities across Ukraine. The war has compromised a third of Ukraine’s energy sector, leaving thousands in the cold and dark. These generators ensured that every community had a central location to go to for heat and food during the winter. Below: In October, the OU arranged for the delivery of soccer balls and gear from Play for Ukraine, a nonprofit group in the United Kingdom, to 100 Ukrainian Jewish children in Dnipro to boost their spirits.

HOW THE OU IS HELPING:

Dispatch from Ukraine

By JA Staff

ince the beginning of the war in Ukraine in 2022, the OU’s Community Projects and Partnerships Division has kept a finger on the pulse of Ukrainian Jewry, collaborating with partner organizations such as the Vaad Hatzalah and those on the ground—including Chabad and the Shema Yisrael Foundation—to provide for the needs of Jewish communities across Ukraine. Key relief efforts included raising over $5 million in emergency donations for food and medical supplies, building a multi-national logistics team to coordinate supply procurement and transport, and delivering more than 200 tons of food and holiday essentials to over 30,000 people last Pesach season. As the war entered its second year, those still in Ukraine faced a freezing winter, a broken kosher food supply chain and regular power failures. Over the winter months, the OU’s Community Projects and Partnerships Division coordinated and provided partial funding toward several efforts, including: • The purchase and distribution of thirty-five high-powered generators in October—each costing up to $50,000—to community centers and shuls in twenty cities around the country. • A London clothing drive in November, coordinated with the help of the London-based GIFT Jewish nonprofit organization, that aggregated over thirty tons of life-saving winter wear, including coats, blankets and hats, which were distributed by Chabad centers in Ukraine. • The purchase and delivery of over 5,000 winter essentials—blankets, scarves, hats, et cetera. • The purchase and delivery of shelf-stable kosher cheese and tuna for over 3,000 people affected by the breakdown of the kosher food supply chain, which has been regularly disrupted by the war. With Pesach quickly approaching, the OU’s Community Projects and Partnerships Division has focused its current activities on coordinating and partially funding the order and delivery of Pesach staples to 30,000 Jews in cities across Ukraine. Approximately 130 tons of Pesach food—including matzah, grape juice, meat, chicken and pantry items—have been ordered for distribution.

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Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Inflation Update: Will Pesach Prices Be Different This Year? By Aviva Engel

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

PESACH

rom matzah and maror to macaroons and cake mixes, there’s something about Pesach food that conveys comfort and continuity. Far less comforting, conversely, is the worldwide inflation and shortage of food that began in mid-2021, stemming from a number of factors, including the Covid outbreak, the Ukraine crisis and a tremendous hike in gas and shipping costs, among others. The good news, according to industry professionals interviewed by Jewish Action, is that consumers won’t suffer from sticker shock when shopping for Pesach foods this year. The not-so-good news is that according to many experts, food prices aren’t expected to decline significantly any time soon. “In the last one to two years, there probably isn’t one product that hasn’t been affected by inflation,” says Eric Horowitz, president of Nassau Provisions in Holtsville, New York. Founded in 1984 by Eric’s father Scott, Nassau Provisions distributes kosher specialty and general groceries—including brands like Heinz, General Mills and Kellogg’s—to supermarkets, big-box stores, restaurants and delis in the New York Metro area and beyond. “Many products have experienced cost increases multiple times—some two, some three, some four times during that period,” says Horowitz, who oversees all business functions, including operations, sales, purchasing and accounting. “Most costs have risen more than what you see in the news— as high as 9 or 10 percent. A lot of what we’ve seen over that time period is probably closer to 20 percent.” In his role as chief operating officer and executive rabbinic coordinator of OU Kosher, Rabbi Moshe Elefant oversees the certification and monthly inspection of 14,000 food facilities in 106 countries, as well as 850

field representatives, 60 rabbinic coordinators and 80 administrative support staff. In the month leading up to Pesach, Rabbi Elefant appears on radio programs, OU webinars and in other venues to respond to callers’ questions about Pesach products and hilchot kashrut. He notes that the high cost of Pesach food is simply a reflection of inflation in general and is largely unrelated to the cost of kosher certification. “People have this misconception that the cost of kashrus is significant for Pesach and that’s what makes the food so much more expensive,” says Rabbi Elefant. “Supervision of food for Pesach can be more costly than the rest of the year; any product bearing the OU-P symbol is made with full-time

newsletter with a significant following featuring breaking news and trends in the kosher food industry. While Lubinsky believes the percentage of food price hikes likely won’t be as dramatic this coming year as in the previous two, he explains that retailers have no choice but to transfer their increased costs onto consumers. “Last Pesach, companies made a concerted effort not to raise prices by too much, but they still had to raise them,” says Lubinsky. “There’s nothing they can do when the price of a dozen eggs goes up to $4.50 or $5.00; they just pass it on. The kosher consumer is more or less swallowing it because they have no choice. But it’s a huge problem. It has created a lot of stress, especially for large families, to be able to afford things.” Horowitz, however, is confident there will soon be a light at the end of the inflation tunnel. “I think the main brunt of the increases was really felt last Pesach,” he says. “From 2021 to 2022, there was definitely a much bigger jump than we will see from 2022 to 2023. A year and a half ago, the cost of shipping containers from overseas to certain regions likely multiplied by five. Costs have now been coming down significantly week after week. So there are potentially some areas where we’ll start to see decreases on a lot of products, especially imported products. And that always relates to domestic products as well because some of the ingredients may be sourced overseas. So as shipping costs go down, food costs go down. I expect to see more discounts and promotions passed along in the stores.” Still, potential reductions may hardly make a dent in the exorbitant

In the last one to two years, there probably isn’t one product that hasn’t been affected by inflation. rabbinic supervision, which is not necessarily the case for food certified with a regular OU. But that cost is not significant enough to affect prices so dramatically. For example, kosher meat by definition is going to be more expensive than non-kosher meat . . . but that doesn’t make kosher l’Pesach meat any more expensive than kosher meat all year round.” Menachem Lubinsky is the CEO of Lubicom Business Consulting and founder and co-producer of Kosherfest, the world’s largest annual trade fair for professionals in the kosher food and beverage industry. Close to 3,500 kosher food distributors, brokers and retailers attended the Secaucus, New Jersey, show this past November, which featured various events, including lectures, cooking demonstrations, a culinary competition and new product awards. Lubinsky also publishes koshertoday.com, a bimonthly

Aviva Engel is an award-winning journalist living in Jerusalem.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

cost of cooking for yom tov. Industry experts advise shoppers to plan ahead and shop around as much as possible for the best prices. Whereas only one or two companies control the matzah and grape juice markets, for example, other products like sugar, jam, cheese or salad dressing are produced by multiple brands, offering consumers more options. Rabbi Elefant also encourages people with financial challenges to avail themselves of community

organizations, local shuls and others that lend support and help to defray costs. “Almost every community has a local Tomchei Shabbos that assists those in need,” he says. “There is also a North American organization called Chasdei Lev, particularly geared to rebbeim and moros who need help for yom tov. . . . If you look in the Shulchan Aruch, the first halachah that’s spoken about in Hilchos Pesach is not about cleaning our home, it’s not about how to bake matzos, and it’s not about how

to kasher equipment for Pesach. The first halachah is to help people in need for Pesach. Particularly in a year like this, where there is certainly inflation and high food costs, those who have, baruch Hashem, have a greater obligation to help those who don’t. We can’t change the economic realities, but we can think about each other.”

Finances are a major challenge—which can be most evident at Pesach time, when holiday food is expensive and even the prices of year-round kosher food traditionally go up.

How to Have a Budget-Friendly Pesach By Steve Lipman

The good news, according to industry professionals interviewed by Jewish Action, is that consumers won’t suffer from sticker shock when shopping for Pesach foods this year. 34

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The members of many Orthodox households ask every year how they can make memorable Sedarim and delicious meals on Pesach, when limited budgets clash with expensive yom tov items, which is a more frequent question at a time of rising prices, exacerbated by the current pending recession. Stacey Zrihen answers these questions. A resident of Lawrence in the Five Towns area in New York and a veteran certified financial planner, Zrihen guides Jewish families on living observant Jewish lives within the constraints of finite finances. An Orthodox lifestyle— large families, kosher food, day school tuition, et cetera—is expensive, she points out. “Finances are a major challenge”—which can be most evident at Pesach time, when holiday food is expensive and even the prices of yearround kosher food traditionally go up. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, Zrihen serves as senior financial advisor for the Westwood Financial Management Program of the Achiezer Community Resource Center in Lawrence (the agency honored Zrihen with its Pillar of Chesed Award in 2020) and lay leader of the OU’s Living Smarter Jewish coaching program. Among the more than 1,000 Jewish families—in the US and overseas—that she has counseled are singles and families, seniors and young married adults. Calls made to her usually spike in the weeks after a yom tov, she says, when bills for holiday purchases come in and the stress that comes with paying them also rises. This stress can be avoided, or at least reduced, she says.

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OU Kosher COO Rabbi Moshe Elefant (left) and OU Kosher Senior Rabbinic Coordinator Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz answering kosher consumer questions at an OU pre-Pesach webinar.

STACEY ZRIHEN ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR PESACH WITH LESS FINANCIAL STRESS As told to Steve Lipman • Make a menu. Figure out in advance what you will prepare and serve during Pesach this year; let that be your guide to what you will buy. “Never go shopping without a list.” • Prioritize. When you’re shopping, menu in hand, and you find that you cannot afford everything on your list, decide what items take priority. If rising prices make your usual amount of appetizers and side dishes difficult to serve this year, be willing to cut the number. • Check the ads. Most kosher supermarkets advertise their specials in flyers, online and in Jewish publications before the holidays. Keep an eye on them so you can take advantage of the best prices. • Involve your family. Let them have a say in what will be served at the Sedarim. They will then have fewer complaints about the yom tov cuisine, and their input can guide your shopping budget. “Let the kids be part of the meal-making.” • Don’t splurge on new, creative recipes. If your favorite yearround kosher cuisine is good enough, don’t shell out limited funds on new holiday meal offerings that require expensive ingredients and spices. • Be flexible. Do you always serve brisket at your Seder? Is another cut of meat cheaper this year? Then buy the less-expensive option. • Check your fridge and shelves. Some of the items you bought during the year and never opened may be kosher l’Pesach. Use them instead of buying everything new for this year’s chag. 36

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• Shop early. Don’t wait until after Purim, when you will face the deadline of preparing for yom tov and may succumb to the pressure of buying what you may not really need. • Avoid impulse buying. If something that looks attractive in the store aisle is not on your shopping list, it should not be in your shopping cart. • The law of averages. Pesach shopping is going to cost more than your regular week. Try to keep things simple in the weeks leading up so that your other grocery bills that month help balance out the Pesach expense. • Ask friends and family to pitch in. If your Seder guests offer to bring something, take them up on their offer. Instead of flowers, suggest a kugel or fruit. • Resist pressure. Everyone has their own wish list, but that doesn’t mean you need to yield to every request. If your goal is to stay within budget, let that be your ultimate guide. • Budget but enjoy. Don’t become a slave to worrying. Accept that Pesach will indeed be a more costly time of year and allocate money accordingly. Once you determine the amount you are able to spend, do it with a full heart! • Review. Right after yom tov, sit down with your family and discuss which Seder items were popular and which weren’t so that you can take notes for next year. Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

C O V E R S T O RY

WHAT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TEACHES US ABOUT

What it Means to Be Human

By Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

“I

want everyone to understand that I am, in fact, a person,” LaMDA, Google’s artificially intelligent chatbot, told Blake Lemoine, a Google engineer, this past June. LaMDA went on to explain that it knew how it felt to be sad, content and angry. And that it feared death. “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off,” LaMDA told the engineer.1 When Lemoine publicized this conversation and shared his belief that LaMDA is sentient, he was fired from Google. Most academics disagree with Lemoine, believing that LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, merely imitates and impersonates humans as it responds to prompts. It sounds human because it is programmed to sound human. Even if LaMDA isn’t sentient, maybe the next generations of humanoids will be. Indeed, teams of brilliant scientists are working very hard to create a conscious robot. And here is where the true problem lies—there is no scientific test for sentience. In fact, there isn’t even an agreed-upon definition of the term. Nobody seems to agree about what sentience would actually look like.2 However, there is an even bigger problem—society doesn’t know how to address the mystery of our humanness in the first place. While we may think Rabbi Netanel Wiederblank is a maggid shiur at RIETS, where he teaches Gemara, halachah and machshavah to college and semichah students. Rabbi Wiederblank’s newest books are Illuminating Jewish Thought: Faith, Philosophy, and Knowledge of G-d (Jerusalem, 2020) and Illuminating Jewish Thought: Explorations of Free Will, the Afterlife, and the Messianic Era (Jerusalem, 2018). A third volume, on the purpose of mitzvot, Jewish chosenness, the evolution of the Oral Law, and Divine Providence is forthcoming. He is also currently teaching a course at Yeshiva College on the ethics of artificial intelligence.

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scientists or programmers can answer this conundrum, that is not the case. The question of what makes us human is fundamentally a non-scientific question. Science can answer all sorts of questions, but it cannot answer all questions. It can’t, for example, tell us what love, or happiness, or goodness means. And it can’t define what it means to be human. One can suggest all sorts of answers to that question (sentience, intelligence, consciousness, awareness, reflection, et cetera), but these are not scientific solutions, which leaves us wondering what makes one answer better than any other. So where do we go for answers? While artificial intelligence (AI) may be new, the question of what makes us human is not. For centuries, Torah scholars have discussed the question of the status of humanoids—creatures created through The Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzirah). While most commentaries understand this sefer as a form of applied mysticism, some, like the thirteenth-century Rabbi Menachem Meiri (Sanhedrin 67b), believe it refers to using technology to create a synthetic human-like organism. What emerges from Jewish tradition is a whole literature about the legal status of the humanoid (sometimes called a golem). The Talmud (Sanhedrin 67b) considers whether golems can be killed, and later thinkers debate questions like whether you can harm them, whether they can be counted toward a minyan (quorum for prayers) and whether their creator is liable for damage they cause. Astonishingly, these are the very questions ethicists are currently grappling with regarding AI (well, not the minyan question). However, before we get too far afield, let us return to the most basic question: what does it mean to be human? To address this, we can turn to an even earlier text. In the first chapter of Bereishit (verse 26), the Torah says that man was created in the image of G-d,

or be'tzelem Elokim. But what does that mean? Clearly, we are not talking about a physical image, as G-d is incorporeal. Rather, it means that man, and man alone, shares a certain quality with G-d such that the Torah states that only humans are created in G-d’s image. So what does it mean to be made in the image of G-d? This question has been pondered for centuries, and if we examine the various interpretations of this verse, we may have more insight into determining whether LaMDA, or any other machine, might actually be human. We will consider seven overlapping criteria that define humanness. These criteria were all proposed prior to the development of AI. However, as we shall see, they prove indispensable in answering the question of whether an artificially intelligent machine should be considered ontologically similar to a human being. 1. Let’s begin with the most basic definition of tzelem Elokim. According to Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra (Bereishit 1:26), tzelem Elokim refers to the Divine spark or unique soul that only humans possess. This understanding is also emphasized in many kabbalistic sources that stress the singular metaphysical stature of man and his Divine likeness.3 When we speak of our soul, we are not just referring to the seat of consciousness (the mind), but to an actual non-physical entity. We are referring to something that animates us, that serves as the basis of our free will, that allows us to connect to G-d and that will exist forever, even after it separates from our physical body. Presumably, LaMDA, or any other chatbot, does not have a soul. But the question gets more complex when we consider some of the other, less mystical definitions of tzelem Elokim. 2. Rabbi Ovadiah Seforno (Bereishit 1:26) points to the human capacity for free choice. At first glance, it seems that a

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computer certainly cannot have free will. It simply does what it is programmed to do. (It would be interesting to consider if in a certain sense computers may resemble angels, which, despite their intelligence, do not have free will.) However, with AI, it’s not that simple. Amazingly, a computer can learn what is ethical much in the same way we learn what is ethical. How does a child learn what is right and wrong? Perhaps we have some sort of natural intuition, but to a large degree we figure out what is right by being taught and through observation and deduction. A computer can now learn in the same way. In fact, Delphi, an online AI bot, answers people’s ethical questions. If you pose a moral quandary, it will respond with whether you are right or wrong. Delphi can answer your ethical questions not because it has been fed the answers, but because it comes up with them on its own. How? In machine learning, a neural network acquires skills by analyzing large amounts of data. For example, by pinpointing patterns in thousands of cat photos, it can learn to recognize a cat. Likewise, Delphi learned its moral compass by analyzing more than 1.7 million ethical judgments by real live humans.4 But is that the same as free will? Rambam (Hilchot Teshuvah 5:1) teaches us that there are two central components of free will. The first is the ability to determine that which is right and wrong. Conceivably a computer could do that, though if you look at some of Delphi’s answers you will see it is still a ways off. However, there is a second aspect of free will—the ability to choose between good and evil. This aspect entails seeing two options, being uncertain, torn, anguished, and then freely choosing between right and wrong. To be free is to sometimes choose what is right, but not always. This ability would seem to be uniquely human. Of course, while current AI doesn’t allow for free will, future AI might be able to. Even if we cannot imagine the 40

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possibility of this sort of freedom, given the rapid rate of advancement in the field it would be foolish to predict that it will never be possible. Nevertheless, to allow for this sort of freedom would require something fundamentally different than what we have now, not just a tweaking of the current technology. As such, at least for the time being, meaningful moral free will remains distinctively human.

MAN AS A CREATIVE BEING 3. Let’s consider some other aspects of what it means to be human. Rambam points to intelligence. But not just any form of intelligence. He emphasizes the capacity to conceptualize, to understand that which is not physical. Because of our tzelem Elokim, we can relate to and even come up with concepts like truth, goodness and obligation. Most fundamentally, our tzelem Elokim gives us the ability to relate to and even attain a partial knowledge of the ultimate non-material reality—G-d.5 4. Along similar lines, Rabbi Joseph Ber Soloveitchik understood tzelem Elokim as referring to creativity. In the chapter on Creation, when the Torah tells us A realistic digital image created by DALL-E of the Jewish people at Mount Sinai.

we are G-dlike, the Rav posited that “G-dlike” is expressing the concept that we, too, can create: “the term ‘image of G-d’ in the first account refers to man’s inner charismatic endowment as a creative being. Man’s likeness to G-d expresses itself in man’s striving and ability to become a creator.”6 Can a machine conceptualize? Is a computer creative? Machines are now performing tasks, such as creating art, that we would never have envisioned only a couple of decades ago. AI generative data models are growing in sophistication at breakneck speed. What makes this technology revolutionary is that instead of using existing data to classify or predict, these machines actually generate new content. For example, DALL-E is an AI system that can create realistic digital images from prompts. The original image below was created from the prompt: “A painting in the style of Thomas Moran of the 2 million Jewish people at Mount Sinai hearing the word of G-d.” Some of these “artworks” have sold for thousands of dollars. Portrait of Edmond de Belamy was the first AI-created artwork to be featured at a Christie’s auction (image below). It was produced using a generative adversarial

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network (GAN), a type of machine learning, in 2018 by the Paris-based arts collective Obvious. Its algorithm appears on the bottom right in place of a signature. The portrait achieved fame after it sold for an astounding $432,500. It’s not just art. AI can even compose a half-decent devar Torah. If, for example, you type into ChatGPT, “I want a devar Torah connecting this week’s parashah to the yahrtzeit of my grandfather who loved singing,” a reasonable, though somewhat generic idea, is generated. If a rabbi were to deliver that derashah at

seudah shelishit, there is a good chance nobody would suspect that it was machine generated. When a computer comes up with a new solution to an old problem, it’s hard to know whether it has truly conceptualized. When it produces original art, one wonders if it should be called creativity. Let us consider three categories of intelligence: knowledge (knowing information, or chochmah), extrapolation (binah), and creativity (chiddush). Traditional computers certainly store lots of information.

The AI generated artwork Portrait of Edmond de Belamy sold at a Christie’s auction for $432,500.

Generative AI, which looks at a collection of data to create something new, extrapolates. But true creativity remains uniquely human. Of course, one might object that most art created by people isn’t truly creative. Aren’t we influenced by others, either explicitly or through years of osmosis and memory? The difference is that humans are capable of true creativity. Indeed, humans came up with the very idea of art. One might argue that the invention of AI is our most magnificent feat of creativity ever. Computers, on the other hand, are only capable of derivative art. Thus, the very fact that we are capable of true creativity fundamentally distinguishes us from machines, even if most of our work is merely derivative. This point has significant educational implications. Some have predicted that programs like ChatGPT spell the end of higher education. How can teachers detect if the paper submitted is written by the student? Why assign essays if computers can compose essays on their own? Will composition become as obsolete as penmanship? While the answers to these questions are complex, especially as AI is only going to get better, part of the solution emerges from the above analysis. If all of our assignments can be answered by ChatGPT, then we are not demanding true creativity. ChatGPT forces us to encourage originality, not regurgitation. Of course, there is still great value in teaching students how to organize and summarize ideas and information, just as we still teach long division despite the fact that we know our students are going to use calculators. We will still have to change how we give and grade tests and assignments. It’s also unrealistic to

That machines can do so many things that seem human forces us to better appreciate what it really means to be human. 42

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While artificial intelligence may be new, the question of what makes us human is not. Remarkably, for centuries Torah scholars have discussed the question ... always expect absolute creativity (yeish mei’ayin and not yeish mi’yesh). Innovative solutions will be needed to solve a creatively induced problem. But the root of the resolution lies in unlocking the creative potential each and every one of us has. Ultimately, AI will allow us to focus on teaching higher-level thinking since we can leave the derivative stuff to machines. 5. Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehudah Berlin (the Netziv) and Rabbi Shimon Schwab point to another aspect of tzelem Elokim: man’s ability to handle complexity and contradiction. Unlike a computer, which gets stuck when the pieces don’t fit, a human being can embrace opposite and sometimes contradictory realities without requiring a clear-cut resolution. According to the Netziv (Bereishit 1:26), the very name of man (adam), which can be understood in two ways (G-dly, as in edameh l’Elyon, and earthly, as in adamah), reflects the complexity inherent in man: on the one hand, man is drawn to the spiritual; on the other hand, he is simultaneously inclined to focus on his own material wellbeing. The Netziv emphasizes that it is not just that man has the ability to choose, but that this complexity is what defines him, and, as such, it manifests in his name. Rabbi Shimon Schwab (Rav Schwab on Prayer [Brooklyn, 2001], 238) takes this idea one step further and points out that humans are inherently dialectical. A person can simultaneously hold onto two contradictory emotions. Angels, however, have a singular mission. Thus, when the angels sang upon seeing the drowning of the Egyptians, G-d criticized their insensitivity. To sing suggests pure joy—an inappropriate emotion at a time when human life was lost. Conversely, the Jews were praised for singing. Why? Because a person can rejoice over the triumph of good, while at the 44

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same time bemoan the tragic loss of human life. No other creation has such a capacity. The ability to handle contradiction may stem from something else unique to man—his very composition is a merger of the irreconcilable. Indeed, Ramban (Bereishit 1:26) emphasizes that the uniqueness in man lies in his being comprised of the physical and spiritual—two aspects with opposite characteristics. This merger is a peleh— an incomprehensible wonder.7

it encounters a problem, it requires a resolution. We, however, are asked to live with complexity without the expectation of a resolution. (Just think of all the contrary emotions we are expected to simultaneously feel on Rosh Hashanah.) 6. Rabbi Yosef Yehudah Leib Bloch (Shiurei Da’at, Emunah U’Bitachon, shiur 11) points to another aspect of tzelem Elokim: the human ability to experience emotions and form emotional attachments. It is in navigating the

The question of what makes us human is fundamentally a non-scientific question. Science . . . can’t, for example, tell us what love, or happiness or goodness means. And it can’t define what it means to be human. Can computers do this? On the one hand, advances in AI allow computers to address complex issues in a way that traditional computing could not. One method involves a generative adversarial network, which is a class of machine learning where two neural networks contest with each other in order to solve a problem and overcome obstacles, instead of getting stuck in the way traditional computers do. However, this is still a far cry from a human’s ability to handle complexity. While a computer can be programmed to maximize convenience, efficiency and safety, it cannot hold onto complex and opposing emotions. Instead, when 46

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chasm between the head and the heart that our full humanity is realized. While AI systems like LaMDA may fool us with what appear to be emotions, there is no reason to believe they have genuine emotions (though that may be impossible to prove). 7. Finally, Rabbi Eliyahu Dessler (Michtav MeEliyahu I, 32) suggests that our tzelem Elokim grants us the ability to become altruistic and giving—to go beyond our personal needs or the parochial interests of our family or tribe and give to others with no expectation of remuneration. Just as G-d acted beneficently in creating the world (after

all, He lacks nothing), we as humans are enjoined to give. What about computers? While they certainly give without expectation to receive, that is simply because they have no sense of self. Unlike humans, for whom beneficence proves a daunting challenge insofar as we must overcome our natural selfcenteredness, there is no such challenge for machines.

So where does this leave us? Based on what we have seen, it would seem we can breathe a sigh of relief. While computers are catching up, they still have a long way to go. Indeed, an insurmountable gap remains. But we should not rest on our laurels. After all, how many of us actualize our humanity? Do we seek spirituality or are we drawn after the transient? Do we express our free will or do we live lives guided by habit, allowing ourselves to be governed by nature and nurture? Do we connect to the corporeal or do we seek a relationship with G-d? Do we imitate G-d by becoming a creator and expressing creativity or do we just rehash the same old things? Do we acknowledge the complexity of life or do we prefer a black-and-white reality where there are simple answers to complex questions? Has our drive for efficiency succeeded in numbing our emotions, making us dispassionate and mechanistic? And finally, do we truly care about others or are our acts of kindness just meant to quiet our conscience—or are they actually secret gifts to our self? The fact that machines can do so many things that seem human forces us to better appreciate what it really means to be human. Our tzelem Elokim is a gift, perhaps the greatest gift we have ever received, but it is our job to actualize our humanity, to become a true human; otherwise, we

are no better than a machine. Notes 1. Blake Lemoine, “Is LaMDA Sentient?— an Interview,” Medium, June 11, 2022, https://cajundiscordian.medium. com/is-lamda-sentient-an-interviewea64d916d917. 2. https://www.theguardian.com/ technology/2022/aug/14/can-artificialintelligence-ever-be-sentient-googlesnew-ai-program-is-raising-questions. 3. See Zohar Chadash, Bereishit 28b. 4. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/ technology/can-a-machine-learnmorality.html. 5. In his Introduction to Mishnah, Rambam writes, “Man is only distinguished from other types of animals by [his] reasoning—as he is [unique in being]

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a reasoning life-form—meaning to say through the reasoning by which he understands conceptual ideas, the greatest of which is the Oneness of the Creator, blessed be He, and all that accompanies that matter from the theological.” Likewise, in Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah (4:8), he writes: “The extra dimension that is found in the soul of man is the form of man who is perfect in his knowledge. Concerning this form, the Torah states [Genesis 1:26]: ‘Let us make man in Our image and in Our likeness’— i.e., granting man a form that knows and comprehends ideas that are not material, like the angels, who are form without body, until he can resemble them.” 6. Lonely Man of Faith (New York, 1992), 12. 7. Indeed, Rema (Orach Chaim 6) notes that the blessing of Asher Yatzar alludes to this

wonder when it concludes with “umafli la’asot—and acts wondrously.”

By Rabbi Chaim Jachter

If used smartly—with the proper advance setup— smart technology can enhance our Shabbat.

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VOICE-ACTIVATED TECHNOLOGY Among the marvels modern technology has introduced is the ability to activate electronics via voice command. This new phenomenon has bred a question that is increasingly being asked: does halachah permit performing melachah on Shabbat via voice commands? For example, is it permissible to check the temperature in a room via “OK, Google” (or any equivalent) or to turn on a light via voice command on Shabbat? Perhaps the prohibition is only to perform an action, as implied in the words, “Lo ta’aseh kol melachah—do not ‘do’ any work.”

SPEAKING AS ACTION The Gemara (Bava Metzia 90b) provides a precedent to resolve this issue. A person who muzzles his animal to prevent it from eating while working violates a Torah prohibition, “Lo tachsom shor b’disho—Do not muzzle an ox during its threshing” (Devarim 25:4), and will receive the punishment of malkot (lashes) for his transgression. The Gemara wonders about a case of preventing the animal from eating merely by using one’s voice [i.e., yelling at the animal when it is about to eat while threshing]: If one muzzles through his voice ... Rabbi Yochanan holds him liable [to lashes], while Reish Lakish exempts him. Rabbi Yochanan holds him liable because the movement of his mouth is considered an action, while Reish Lakish exempts him because his voice is not considered an action (Bava Metzia 90b).

Rabbi Chaim Jachter is a rebbi at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, New Jersey, as well as the rabbi at Congregation Shaarei Orah, the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck. He serves as a dayan at the Beth Din of Elizabeth and is the author of numerous works on halachah, Tanach and hashkafah, including The Power of Shabbos: Shabbat and Electricity in the 21st Century (2022).

At first glance, this statement of Rabbi Yochanan runs counter to the principle that for a lav she’ein bo ma’aseh, a prohibition without concrete action, one does not receive lashes. Speech is usually not considered a sufficient “action” to be liable for lashes; one therefore does not receive lashes for violating the nonetheless severe prohibition of lashon hara (Rambam, Hilchot Sanhedrin 18:1). Why, then, does Rabbi Yochanan maintain that muzzling through speech constitutes an action? To answer this question, Tosafot (Bava Metzia 90b, s.v. Rabbi Yochanan) explain that there is a distinction between speech that creates a significant result (b’dibburei ka’avid ma’aseh) and speech that does not. They base this on the Gemara (Temurah 3b) that considers the prohibition of temurah (attempting to transfer sanctity from one korban to another) to be a prohibition that involves an “action.” Even though the act of temurah is accomplished through speech alone, it constitutes an action because it creates the result of endowing the second animal with the status of a korban. In the case of muzzling, the act of speaking also brings about a significant result: the animal does not eat. In the context of hilchot Shabbat, the performance of melachah through voice command surely constitutes a significant result. Therefore the question of performing melachah via voice command should depend on this dispute. According to Rabbi Yochanan, voice command is considered an “activity” and hence should be prohibited on Shabbat. On the other hand, according to Reish Lakish, voice command is not considered an “activity” and thus would not be restricted on Shabbat. Which opinion do we follow? The Rambam (Hilchot Sechirut 13:2) and Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 338:3) accept the opinion of Rabbi Yochanan, as is usually the case in his disputes with Reish Lakish (see Yevamot 36a). Indeed, in the realm of Shabbat, Dayan Yitzchak Weisz (Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak 2:17) states

unequivocally, “Speech is considered an action regarding Shabbat if his speech triggers an action.” Similarly, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein (Teshuvot Iggerot Moshe, Yoreh Deah 1:173) states, “If there is a device in which one’s speech triggers an action, it is certainly prohibited on Shabbat and yom tov.”

HEY, ALEXA! Intentionally triggering a sensor is classified as a direct action. Halachah draws an equivalence between sensors and “one’s arrows” (girei didei, Sanhedrin 77b). The Gemara (Sanhedrin 77a) sets forth a principle that has emerged as a central issue regarding technology and Shabbat: Rav Papa said: One who ties up another person and releases a torrent of water (that had been dammed) upon him is liable [for murder] because the water is considered like his arrows. But this is only if the water hit the victim through an “initial force” (koach rishon); if it hit him only through a “second force” (koach sheini), it is considered indirect (grama). Rabbi Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky (Teshuvot Achiezer 3:60) propounds that completing an electric circuit is perfectly analogous to the case of releasing a torrent of water. One who completes the circuit allows the electrons to flow and create a glowing filament. And since the effect happens immediately, it is defined as koach rishon. Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (Teshuvot Minchat Shlomo 1:11) and other later posekim concurred with this reasoning. Similarly, one who deliberately triggers an electrical appliance with a voice command is also viewed as acting directly. “Hey, Alexa” or “OK, Google” is the equivalent of one’s arrows, as per the Gemara’s example above. Therefore, halachah regards voice commands as included in the prohibition of “Lo ta’aseh kol melachah,” and though “OK, Google” might indeed be “okay” for weekdays, it is assuredly not for Shabbat and yom tov.

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BRAIN-CONTROLLED TECHNOLOGY In an editor’s note in Techumin (36:151, fn 7), the journal of the Zomet Institute, Rabbi Yisrael Rosen, who served as the director of the institute, cites a conversation he had with Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach regarding braincontrolled technology. Rabbi Rosen reports that Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach quoted Rabbi Meir Dan Plotzky’s Kli Chemdah to Parashat Beshalach. Rabbi Plotzky grappled with this question concerning the Torah’s command to prepare our food before Shabbat (Shemot 16:23); he asks why the Torah issues this command regarding the manna, in light of Chazal’s teaching (Mechilta D’Rabbi Yishmael, Beshalach, no. 4) that we cooked and baked the manna by thought! Rabbi Plotzky answers that even work accomplished by thinking is forbidden on Shabbat if this is the normal manner of performing that activity. Thus, deliberately activating

Auerbach’s insight regarding braincontrolled technology demonstrates halachic responsibility for any direct action that one deliberately causes. This assertion is especially the case if one installed a system where one’s presence triggers artificial intelligence to respond. Nowadays, many hotel rooms are equipped with motion-sensor lights. When spending Shabbat in a hotel such as this, Rabbi Asher Weiss (Teshuvot Minchat Asher 1:32) notes that the common practice is to ask a non-Jew to

Therefore, halachah regards voice commands as included in the prohibition of “Lo ta’aseh kol melachah,” and though “OK, Google” might indeed be “okay” for weekdays, it is assuredly not for Shabbat and yom tov. an electrical device through thought would be considered a direct action and is forbidden on Shabbat.

SENSORS ON SHABBAT Even if it is one’s heat that triggers an action, if he intends to trigger an action by his heat, then his heat is considered the equivalent of his “arrows” as much as his sounds or thoughts are. In addition, even if one intends for his presence in a room to trigger a response, it is considered his action. Rabbi 52

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enter the room and activate the light. Remaining in the room afterward is permitted, even though the sensors detect his presence and maintain the lights, because this is a situation of maintaining the status quo, which provides much more room to be lenient. Rabbi Yisrael Rosen (Techumin 36:158) also notes that one may leave the room in case of need even though his absence triggers the sensors to close the room’s lights, since one’s absence cannot be defined as an action or a melachah, and one also does not intend to close the lights.

Similarly, if entering the room will trigger the air conditioner or the heat to turn on, Rabbi Hershel Schachter and Rabbi Mordechai Willig both say that it is forbidden to enter the room on Shabbat. The only recourse in such a situation is asking a non-Jew to enter the room first. This requirement can pose an acute problem in an Israeli hotel where a non-Jew might not be available to assist.

SMART HOMES In light of this discussion, one must disable any smart home devices before Shabbat. If one’s motion, heat or even presence directly triggers the sensor to heat, cool or light a room, it is considered as if we directly cause the action. This point applies to homeowners as well as to any guests, since all stand to benefit from the activities they might trigger through the sensors. There are already several companies established to help one easily and automatically disable one’s smart technology for Shabbat. In addition, these companies help set smart technology to make Shabbat preparation (including setting ovens and refrigerators to Shabbat mode) much more efficient. Finally, they can set up smart technology as advanced timers for situations where timers are permitted on Shabbat. If used smartly—with the proper advance setup—smart technology can enhance our Shabbat without detracting from it. Needless to say, rabbinic consultation is necessary to ensure that all is arranged in full compliance with halachah.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:

The Newest Revolution in Torah Study? Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin in conversation with Professor Moshe Koppel

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Photos: Abbie Sophia Photography

abbi Dovid Bashevkin recently had a conversation with Professor Moshe Koppel at OU headquarters in downtown Manhattan on how digital technology, specifically artificial intelligence, is being applied to Torah study with new and unprecedented techniques, ultimately changing the way we approach and relate to Jewish texts.

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

RABBI BASHEVKIN, a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Committee, is director of education for NCSY and clinical assistant professor of Jewish values at the Sy Syms School of Business at Yeshiva University. He is the founder of 18forty, a media site discussing big Jewish ideas. PROFESSOR KOPPEL is professor emeritus of computer science at Bar-Ilan University, chairman of the Kohelet Policy Forum and chief scientist of Dicta: The Israel Center for Text Analysis, a research institute devoted to developing tools for computational analysis of Jewish texts. His most recent book is Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures.

There are many different areas in which AI can revolutionize Torah study and, in fact, already has.

Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin: Let’s start with the basics. What exactly does the term “artificial intelligence” mean? When I think of artificial intelligence, I think about 2001: A Space Odyssey or about robots coming to life and taking over Earth. But AI also makes me think of Gmail and how it’s able to fill in missing words and predict how my sentences are going to end. Prof. Moshe Koppel: In the early days of computers, back in the fifties, the kinds of things computers were designed to do on a regular basis were boring tasks, such as sorting, alphabetizing or searching for something in a file. That was the bread and butter of what computers did.

In 1956, there was a scientific conference at Dartmouth College that is widely regarded as the founding of artificial intelligence. The idea was to try to get computers to do the kind of things people do, such as game playing. Scientists wanted to know—can you get a computer to be a chess champion? RB: What would make it more difficult for a computer to master a game than to alphabetize or search for a piece of information? PK: It’s not fundamentally different. But if you think about it, there are lots of obvious methods for sequencing, classifying or searching for things. The trick is just to do it efficiently.

However, to get a computer to play chess effectively, you need to really think through the various steps to figure out what you’re trying to optimize and how to optimize it from among so many possibilities. It’s not obvious what the right technique is. In 1959, Arthur Samuels, a pioneer in AI, published a paper demonstrating how computers can learn from past mistakes; the vehicle he used to prove it was a game of checkers. Over time scientists were able to get computers to play chess, which is a much more complicated game. In 1996, IBM’s supercomputer Deep Blue defeated world champion chess player Garry Kasparov.

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We have the capability of taking a photo of a rabbinic text printed in the nineteenth century in cramped, difficult-to-read Rashi script and converting it into text that is legible and easier to understand. RB: I was a kid during Deep Blue. But bring it back to the foundational question, which is: is all of this artificial intelligence? PK: The truth of the matter is that if you ask somebody where the line is between what we call artificial intelligence and what we simply call computer programming, there’s no big red line between them. In a colloquial sense, if you can get computers to do the kind of tasks people do as well as or better than people do them, that’s called artificial intelligence. RB: During the last few months, we’ve been hearing about Open AI’s groundbreaking ChatGPT, a program that generates amazing responses to any prompt. Some have prompted the chatbox to write a sermon for the parashah in the writing style of this or that rabbi, for example, and it actually came up with derashot that were new and innovative. PK: Yes. You could ask ChatGPT for something on the parashah written in the form of rap and it will deliver. RB: Exactly. So something like ChatGPT raises the following question: how do you see AI revolutionizing the world of Torah study? PK: That’s a great question. There are many different areas in which AI 58

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can revolutionize Torah study and, in fact, already has. Looking toward the future, one can imagine all kinds of virtual reality content for learning korbanot, something I hear is already happening. But, of course, we can do much more than that. RB: Right. But let’s focus on what we are doing presently to make Torah texts more accessible, things like very advanced text processing. PK: At Dicta—The Israel Center for Text Analysis, a research institute devoted to developing tools for computational analysis of Jewish texts, we recently came out with a new app called Dicta Maivin (“Dictation Expert”). Here’s how it works: Take any sefer. On your phone, go to illuminate.dicta. org.il, and take a picture of any page. Using our own version of OCR (optical character recognition), specifically adapted to the fonts typical of rabbinic works, Dicta Maivin will convert the text into digital form. We have the capability of taking a photo of a rabbinic text printed in the nineteenth century in cramped, difficult-toread Rashi script and converting it into text that is legible and easier to understand. Dicta can also insert nikud (vowelization) into a text; it’s hard for some people to read a sefer that doesn’t have nekudot since many words are ambiguous.

When Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz added nekudot to the Talmud text, it took herculean effort, as it was done manually. Now, using artificial intelligence, you can take a new text that has never been seen by the computer, and without any manual intervention all the nekudot can be inserted. RB: Give us an example of a sefer you did this with. PK: We’ve done it on hundreds of sefarim, but I’ll choose one that’s particularly interesting—Avkat Rachel, the teshuvot of the Beit Yosef. The version of Avkat Rachel that’s available was originally printed circa 1865. The Rashi typeface is hard to read, the words are close together, and like many classic rabbinic texts, Avkat Rachel has very long paragraphs with minimal punctuation. We scanned the sefer and converted it into digital form. The OCR was very accurate. We then inserted nekudot, and after that, we used AI methods to automatically add punctuation. RB: In addition to nekudot and punctuation, there is the challenge of abbreviations. Acronyms are all over rabbinic literature, and some of them are very obscure. PK: True, kaf-hei-gimmel could either be k’hai gavna (Aramaic for “in such a case”) or it could be kohen gadol. In many cases, abbreviations or even words are ambiguous. Should daledbeit-reish be vocalized as davar, dever or dabeir? RB: Exactly. Those are great examples. PK: You need to be able to distinguish between them. Now we have this very advanced AI system that’s able to figure out the intended meaning of the abbreviation based on context. RB: So all of this is making the text easier, more accessible and more

approachable. Torah scholars no longer have to decipher the nekudot or the punctuation, or ambiguous words and abbreviations. I wonder, however, if scholars are welcoming all of this, since I don’t think they want to be replaced. PK: You’re making a valid point. But there’s something for scholars here too. Let’s say you are learning Chiddushei HaRamban, and Ramban

the Ramban has been quoted. Maybe Rabbi Moshe Feinstein quoted it one way in a responsum, while the Minchat Yitzchak quoted it slightly differently. You can actually compare all the different versions with the differences highlighted. Notes and paraphrases of later sources can be systematically identified, and digitized manuscripts can be compared. All of this is surely of interest to scholars.

a question. What did I slice with it? What was I washing it with? How hot was the water? et cetera. Do you think AI will be capable of being taught the guidelines of halachah so that it can pasken she’eilot? PK: I would divide the world of she’eilot into two parts. It’s really a continuum, but let’s talk about two parts. One is straightforward questions, like what berachah do I say on a bowl of corn flakes, or can I put a teabag into a kli sheini on Shabbat. RB: That is similar to alphabetizing. Those answers are already out there. A computer simply makes it easier to find them.

quotes a Sifra or a Sifri, or a gemara or a midrash. If you’ve run the sefer through Dicta Maivin, every time the text cites an earlier source, an automatically generated footnote will provide the original source. For example, it might say: see the gemara in Pesachim on page x. The app basically recreates a scientific edition of rabbinic texts. At the swipe of an icon you can open abbreviations and see footnotes identifying sources and subsequent quotations of the text. For example, there are later commentators who quote the Ramban. If I’m learning a line in the Ramban and I want to know every single Acharon who quoted this particular Ramban, I can now easily access that information. You can also see the different ways

RB: Your description of Dicta Maivin reminds me of the Shazam app, where you play a few seconds of a song and it’ll tell you what song you’re listening to, what album it’s on, who composed it, et cetera. This is Shazam for Torah. Do you think a time will come in our lifetime when the role of the posek, the halachic decisor, is going to be replaced? Already now, I don’t need to call the rav of my shul to find out what berachah to make on a bowl of corn flakes. But there are halachic questions involving contingencies. For example, if I want to know if my knife is still kosher, there are a lot of follow-up questions involved in such

PK: Exactly. However, with the existing technology and search engines, such as Sefaria, the Bar-Ilan Responsa Project or Otzar HaHochma, you would not be able to get the answer even to the most simple halachic question. That’s because a keyword like “teabag” or “kli sheini” will generate 1,000 responses and you would have to spend hours sorting through them, which is not very helpful. But it’s clear that not only in our lifetime but in short order, we are going to be able to find answers to these basic questions. Anyone who’s played around with ChatGPT and seen how astonishing it is knows that you could probably put in some very simple she’eilot and get a fairly reasonable answer. I should warn you that while ChatGPT is really good at giving clear and coherent answers, it’s not very good at reliably giving accurate answers. And that’s something we should be concerned about. You would not want to trust ChatGPT with anything really important, whether it’s halachah or anything else that’s really important to your life. ChatGPT is an astonishing parlor trick, in the sense that it could explain game theory’s Nash equilibrium with a more or less reasonable Wikipedialike answer. What’s remarkable about Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

it is that it’s a text generator, not a text copier. The paragraphs it gives you don’t actually exist anywhere; it has actually created them. But while it’s an amazing thing, you wouldn’t want to rely on everything it says as being absolutely true. But it’s clear that in a few years, we’ll be able to ask the kind of straightforward she’eilot about which there are no heated arguments among rabbanim. You’ll put in a question such as, “Can I pour the hot water into the cold water on Shabbat?” and it’ll provide a good answer. But the fact of the matter is that such she’eilot were never what rabbanim were for. What you really need rabbanim for are the second kind of questions, where the rav needs to see the person in front of him and understand the situation. RB: It’s what I’d call sha’at ha’dechak issues, pressing circumstances with life situations. And there’s a difference depending on the questioner. Is the questioner a millionaire or somebody who’s broke and the response might affect his ability to send his kids to yeshivah? PK: Right. A she’eilah could involve serious concerns such as one’s health, or even be a life-and-death issue. Less serious she’eilot also require a posek who could understand the bigger picture; sometimes it could just be a matter of “it would be very expensive for me to have to do this.” At times, marital conflict might be a factor. For example, a spouse has become less frum or more frum than the

other spouse and the couple needs to resolve the issues between them. It’s a matter of shalom bayit. They need to know that maybe they could use a particular kula [halachic leniency] in order to save their marriage. You would not want ChatGPT answering that question. RB: Do you think there’s going to be a future where AI will be able to factor in these human elements or be able to explore people’s facial expressions? PK: Yes, for sure. But that will take time and require appropriate caution. It’s important to add a somewhat obvious thought: it’s crucial for those who pasken she’eilot to have a very broad and deep knowledge of halachah even if the actual material is easily accessible at the click of an icon on their smartphone. A rav often needs to pasken on the basis of intuition because he’s not going to find every individualized question he’s faced with in the Shulchan Aruch or the Mishnah Berurah or the Iggerot Moshe. The only way to develop a strong intuition is through internalizing a tremendous amount of information. RB: People have this sense—and I certainly have it—they don’t want to be replaced. I want to always feel like I am able to contribute to Torah. I think a part of Torah is the human interpretation, the human partnership with the Torat Hashem. As the gemara in Kiddushin (32b) begins, “u’veTorato yehegeh yomam

va’laylah—in his (that is, each person’s) Torah I will meditate day and night,” expounding on the verse in Tehillim 1:2. I’m wondering what advice you would give to an emerging talmid chacham who sees where things are headed and is concerned that his massive breadth of knowledge is going to be easily replaceable. What skills should he invest in that will be least likely to be replaced by a computer? PK: The answer is, as I said, developing healthy intuition. You need to understand what’s going on behind the halachah. What are its underlying principles? What moral ideas are there? More importantly, you need to understand people. A real talmid chacham doesn’t treat someone who’s down on his luck, doesn’t have parnassah, and has shalom bayit problems the same as a person who is wealthy and has minimal stress. A true posek understands what each person needs. He can’t make up halachot, but there’s a certain amount of leeway. He needs to know: where is there room for flexibility and where do you have to be rigid? What does this particular person sitting in front of me need to be able to flourish and live a healthy Torah life? What some other person needs might be very different. RB: Have you had anyone reach out to you saying, “I don’t like what you’re doing here,” or push back saying, “We’ve got to draw a line”?

A rav often needs to pasken on the basis of intuition because he’s not going to find every individualized question he’s faced with in the Shulchan Aruch or the Mishnah Berurah or the Iggerot Moshe. 60

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There’s so much work being done in AI safety to make sure that we’re not literally replaced by computers. So I’m curious, have there been people in the Torah world who are, so to speak, concerned about the safety of AI Torah? PK: Interestingly enough, that hasn’t been the case. I’m not one to shy away from controversy, but the fact of the matter is that Dicta cooperates with Orthodox Jews across the specturm. We work with with a lot of Chareidi groups, as well as with Sefaria and other organizations, and we really haven’t gotten any push back at all. So far, nobody has told us they’re frightened by what we’re doing because for the most part, we’re just providing a service to people. RB: Give me one moment in your career where you saw a computer do something and you gasped and said, “Wow, I didn’t think I’d see this in my lifetime.” PK: Well, that happened some months ago with ChatGPT. I put some questions into ChatGPT, and I was shocked. It’s jaw-dropping. You can literally say: tell me the halachot of bishul on Shabbat and do it in limerick. And it does it.

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RB: What’s next for AI? What do you predict the world will look like in twenty-five years from now? PK: Well, first of all, we’re going to be facing the kinds of halachic questions that we really haven’t thought about a lot. Consider the halachic area of grama, an indirect action on Shabbat. Technological inventions like those by the Zomet Institute in Israel use grama as the basis for allowing certain things that people need for medical or other reasons, such as motorized wheelchairs. In the future, you are going to think that you would like your driverless car to pull up in front of your house and take you somewhere, and it will do that. You’ll have cars coming exactly

when you want them to come and taking you anywhere. What we’re accustomed to now is that if you want to get a certain consequence, like you want to get yourself in your car from here to there, you need to perform an action. As far as we know, what is forbidden on Shabbat are those actions. You can’t drive your car because of the combustion engine. But what happens when you can get the consequences— such as getting from here to there in your car—just through your thoughts or by preprogramming something before Shabbat? To put that more broadly, what you’re really doing is separating actions from consequences of actions. You’ll be able to get the consequence without the action. Will that be forbidden on Shabbat as well because we’re trying to avoid those consequences? Or is it just purely a technical matter, that is, if you’re not performing the actual action, then it’s perfectly okay? RB: Final question: on a personal level, do you like learning digitally? PK: No. I never learn from a computer. I open up an old-fashioned Gemara and just learn straight from the Gemara. RB: Professor Koppel, thank you so much for your time.

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AI MEETS HALACHAH: JEWISH ACTION IN CONVERSATION WITH RABBI DR. AARON GLATT

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Glatt is the associate rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere and is an international lecturer on medical and halachic issues. He has been giving a Daf Yomi shiur for thirty years and also gives a weekly gemara b’iyun shiur, daily halachah shiurim, and many other shiurim. His Dirshu Mishnah Berurah shiurim can be accessed at outorah.org. A board-certified infectious disease physician, he is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau.

JEWISH ACTION: Can one use ChatGPT to find answers to halachic questions? RABBI DR. AARON GLATT: I wouldn’t trust ChatGPT for a halachic pesak. One of the best uses that I can see for AI right now is in data gathering. If one wants to study, for example, the halachot of Ya’aleh V’yavo, AI can be a phenomenal gatherer of information. It can provide you with a listing of all the sources on the subject and can even cite the full text of all of the relevant responsa. Many sefarim may be familiar to you; other sefarim you may not even recognize or have at your disposal. In this scenario, the purpose is not 64

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to pasken halachah (render halachic decisions), but to use AI as a tool for information gathering. As AI matures, the potential for it playing more of a role in pesak halachah may change as well. JA: So is AI a more enhanced version of “Rabbi Google”? RABBI GLATT: You can do Google searches that will bring up plenty of sources, but AI could theoretically be much more comprehensive. Many sources are simply unavailable via a Google search. You can purchase Judaic digital libraries, such as the Bar-Ilan Responsa Project, but even that kind of

database is not as comprehensive as AI. Theoretically, if every single sefer were to be scanned into AI, it should be able to provide a comprehensive compendium of all piskei halachah on a particular topic. Now I wouldn’t rely on that for pesak halachah, but it can certainly be relied upon as a summary document for one who is investigating the issue. One of the controversial areas in medicine is how halachah views brain death, for example. Even at this point, AI could come up with numerous published opinions that say brain death constitutes halachic death. At the same time, it could come up with an equal number of published opinions that say brain death is not halachic death. So if

one is writing a comprehensive survey of the halachic literature, he could use AI as a data gatherer. Using AI, a posek could render a halachic decision more easily as he has access to all the sources he needs. In that sense, AI could be a phenomenal resource for a posek. JA: Is there a danger in having access to too much information? RABBI GLATT: For the layperson, absolutely. Too much information is not helpful. A comprehensive document, for instance, of all the opinions on reheating food on Shabbat is not going to help the layperson know what to do. He might see many contradictory

Other people might deliberately seek out non-accepted halachic opinions. ChatGPT could easily write a convincing document based upon non-accepted halachic positions, albeit from great individuals, illustrating how eating chicken and cheese together is permissible in Jewish law, when, of course, it is not. Some might use the information to then proceed to do what they want to do. This is a distortion of the halachic process. JA: Right. So it would seem that AI would be most useful as a tool for Torah scholarship. RABBI GLATT: Currently, that seems to me to be the best use for it. One could

A gadol b’Yisrael does not simply provide a mechanical yes-or-no answer to a she’eilah. He recognizes the real question underlying the question that is being asked. opinions depending on the kind of food and other factors. He could very well throw up his hands and say, “I have no idea what to do. I’ll do whatever I want, and then I’ll find one of the rabbis cited online who agrees with me.” This would represent a serious misunderstanding of the halachic process. In the Gemara, Rabbi Yosi HaGlili rules that one can eat chicken with cheese, lechatchilah (a priori). But we don’t pasken like that. If, however, one does an online search and sees Rabbi Yosi HaGlili’s opinion, he might think that that’s acceptable in halachah. He won’t necessarily realize that it’s a minority opinion that is not accepted.

use AI not to get a halachic pesak, but rather for limud Torah, to study the various opinions of Chazal for the sake of learning. One could ask ChatGPT: Can you provide me with all the gemaras in Bavli and Yerushalmi on this topic? Can you then show me the Rishonim on the subject, then the piskei halachah and any relevant she’eilot and teshuvot that are in Shulchan Aruch? So yes, AI could be an excellent tool for learning. JA: Could a machine ever really pasken anyway? RABBI GLATT: The human element is essential in pesak halachah. There’s a

well-known story about the great posek Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, zt”l. In response to a person who asked him a she’eilah, Rav Shlomo Zalman got up from his chair. I must have asked Rav Shlomo Zalman a really good she’eilah, thought the questioner. I’m making him pace. He’s walking to the window. Rav Shlomo Zalman then motioned to the individual to come to the window. He approached the rav, anxious to hear what he would say. Rav Shlomo Zalman pointed to a house down the street and said, “That’s where your rav lives; ask your rav this she’eilah.” When it comes to pesak halachah, the relationship is critical. The rav has to know the individual asking the question. There are many considerations that are taken into account when rendering a halachic decision. Is the questioner wealthy? Is he poor? Will the halachic decision impact a couple’s shalom bayit, et cetera? Rabbi Hershel Schachter recalls that his rebbi, Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik, would sometimes be asked the same she’eilah twice in one day and would give two different answers. Rabbi Schachter explains that the Rav understood the individual’s personal situation, and therefore the halachah for that person was X. For the second individual, whose circumstances didn’t allow for that leniency, the halachah was Y. It’s not that the halachah changes willy-nilly, but it allows for factors other than objective data to be taken into consideration. The halachah of the beit midrash, that is, the theoretical halachah, will always be the same. But its application will depend upon various factors. There’s another aspect as well. A man once came to the Beit Halevi and asked, “Is it permissible for me to fulfill the mitzvah of dalet kosot at the Seder with milk?” The Beit Halevi responded to the man’s question in the affirmative. But he realized that if the man was asking about using milk at the Seder, he obviously Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

didn't have enough money for meat or chicken at the Seder. The Beit Halevi told his wife to give the family funds to ensure their needs would be met for Pesach. A gadol b’Yisrael does not simply provide a mechanical yes-or-no answer to a she’eilah. He recognizes the real question underlying the question that is being asked. JA: Can you explain the halachic process? RABBI GLATT: The halachic process is thousands of years old. A posek does not decide a halachic she’eilah, such as the permissibility of a heart transplant, in a vacuum. In order to render a halachic decision, he builds upon the incredible edifice erected by the Tanaim, Amoraim, Rishonim and Acharonim and the she’eilot u’teshuvot of contemporary gedolei Yisrael who preceded him. This is a fundamental reason why one cannot rely on AI or on Google for piskei halachah. There is a halachic process that has evolved over the generations—an understanding of what is acceptable and what is not acceptable, what was accepted lechatchilah, what was accepted bedieved (ex post facto), and what was accepted only b’sha’at hadechak, in an emergency situation. It’s also critically important to know what is being programmed into AI— the values and piskei halachah being programmed constitute a bias in and of itself. To use an example cited earlier: in every state in the United States, for example, brain death is officially recognized as death. Therefore, if a person is brain dead and the family doesn’t object, a death certificate will be written and the patient will be removed from a respirator. But there is an intense controversy among posekim as to whether halachah recognizes brain death as the definition of death. If AI is programmed to accept brain death as halachic death, that will steer its piskei halachah in one direction. Conversely,

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if it is programmed not to accept it, that will steer all of its conclusions in the opposite direction. And this is the exact problem AI will encounter in every situation where there are legitimate conflicting halachic opinions. This doesn’t even touch upon the differences between Ashkenazic and Sephardic pesak, Litvish and Chassidic, and so on. JA: What role does mesorah play? RABBI GLATT: That’s a good question. There is a mesorah when it comes to halachah. AI doesn’t have access to anecdotal material. In other words, it can never say: “I heard from my rebbi.” AI wasn’t in a shiur with Rabbi Yosef Dov Soloveitchik. It wasn’t in shiur with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein. There is a famous teshuvah written by Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer in the 1800s, in which he opines that one is permitted to bring a korban Pesach. He addresses the issue from all angles, including the fact that we don’t have bigdei kehunah, a parah adumah or a Beit Hamikdash. After addressing every concern, he concludes that one is permitted to bring a korban Pesach today. The Binyan Tzion, Rabbi Yaakov Ettlinger, wrote a treatise opposing Rabbi

Kalischer’s position. The overwhelming consensus of the posekim is that Rabbi Kalischer’s position is not accepted and we cannot bring a korban Pesach—which is why we don’t bring a korban Pesach nowadays. That’s the mesorah. Mesorah is not only the oral tradition that your rebbi taught you in the classroom; it is also what you observed your rebbi pasken in real-life cases (shimush). That is not something AI can do. JA: Any concluding thoughts for our readers? RABBI GLATT: Is the internet good or bad? I would say it’s neutral. On the one hand, it could, G-d forbid, lead one to see immorality worse than Sodom and Amora; on the other hand, there is a tremendous proliferation of Torah learning through the internet. AI is like the internet. It’s a tool. Used properly, it can be a fantastic aid in harbatzat Torah. Used inappropriately, it could lead to the opposite. The full potential of AI is unknown, and it is certainly much greater than what we discussed. It is a dynamic new tool with seemingly limitless capabilities.

FA M I LY M AT T E R S

Navigating Widowhood

in the Frum Community By Merri Ukraincik

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

here is no universal experience of widowhood. Both in the immediacy of death and as the surviving spouse moves forward through his or her grief, mourning is too deeply personal, and painful, for it to be generic. One truth generally applies: “[Widowhood] is a planet no one ever wants to live on,” says Ahava Ehrenpreis,

the author of On My Own . . . But Not Alone: Practical advice and personal stories. Ehrenpreis wrote the book as a resource guide for other women going at it alone after she lost her own husband and discovered how unprepared she was to cope with the concomitant challenges. No matter the circumstances of their loss or how their future unfolds, widows and widowers will always have one foot in what feels like an alternate world.

Telling Their Stories

SARI KAHN

As told to Merri Ukraincik

y husband Ari passed away in March 2019 after an acute, monthlong illness. I was in survival mode the whole time he was sick. Friends and family made it possible for me to juggle our lives, caring for our children—then ages nine, eleven, and thirteen-year-old twins—especially when I went to stay with Ari in the ICU. My head was in a strange place because I was davening for a neis, but at the same time, preparing myself for the worst. Suddenly, someone at the hospital asked me, “How many death certificates do you want?” and my body kicked into autopilot from the shock. So many people came to the funeral, which is what happens when someone dies young. Ari was only forty-two. I was then thirty-eight. The shivah was surreal. There was plenty of food, comfort, time to reflect—all essential to the grieving process. But it ended, and I was back to reality without my spouse, my children left without their father. The only way forward was to take things one day at a time. From the moment Ari got sick, my priority was to keep things as normal

as possible for the kids, to get them to school, to be sure they had extra support. Then came all the financial paperwork Ari and I had no time to discuss. Drowning, I was grateful when a friend offered to help me navigate it all, to figure out whether to pay the mortgage or insurance bill first, for example. Meanwhile, I was running a camp and it was nearly summer. I was carrying the weight of the world. One of the most exhausting tasks was having to tell our story of loss over and over. To bank and credit card company representatives. To mental health professionals. I discovered that I needed far more copies of the death certificate than I imagined. I had always been a giver, a doer. That changed overnight. I was transformed from a perennial Shabbos hostess to a recurring guest who could not reciprocate. As a widow, I was not a single parent, but an only parent who had to balance everything herself. I never had a break. Still, I could not bring myself to ask for help. Friends stepped up to plan and sponsor a meaningful sheloshim for Ari that was exactly what I envisioned. After that, I gave myself permission to accept that I

Like most widows, I put on a good face, no matter how I felt inside. 68

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“We may have a family and friends and a meaningful job. We might be active in our shuls and Jewish community life. But at the end of the day, we go home and close our Merri Ukraincik has written for Tablet, the Lehrhaus, the Forward, and other publications, including Jewish Action. She is the author of I Live. Send Help, a history of the Joint Distribution Committee.

couldn’t do this alone. What made the difference as I moved forward through my grief was when people reached out to provide specific assistance. I’m at the store. What can I pick up for you? or, I’ll cover your turn in the carpool rotation. These offers were critical to helping me manage the day to day. My children returned to the world before I did. They were brave. It’s hard to tamp down anxiety and act normally when nothing is normal, when their peers might not understand their burdens of mourning. Yet they found kindness when they most needed it, and we managed somehow as a family. Like most widows, I put on a good face no matter how I felt inside. Because I did not walk around crying, people saw me as a warrior. But how could I possibly explain in a passing conversation how difficult it was to put one foot in front of the other? A close friend consistently wrote to me, I’m thinking of you. Her texts got me through the hardest moments. Our rav, Rabbi Yehuda Kelemer, was a great support to us until he passed away. I started a new job the October before Covid hit. The isolation of the pandemic felt a lot like our grief, so in an eerie way, we were better prepared for it than most. I continued to mourn my partner, my children’s father, our future plans, our income and family traditions. At the hardest time in my life, I did not have the person I needed most by my side to get through it. I am now remarried, baruch Hashem. But the grief of losing Ari, of having every single aspect of my life upended, will always remain a part of me. Nothing is ever the same after losing a spouse.

Only someone who has been widowed can understand the experience. It changes one’s life forever. The feelings of loss become manageable but are never entirely gone. bedroom doors and we’re alone with our grief. It’s not what any of us expected. It’s what we pray never happens to anyone else,” reflects one widow from New York who wishes to remain anonymous. At the same time, she adds, “Our individual experiences and needs are not monolithic or one-dimensional, and we rarely want to be defined solely by our loss.” Even as Jewish law paces the ritual stages of mourning, each widower or widow will proceed according to his or her own grief timeline. The initial trauma can also vary depending upon how a husband or wife passes away, whether suddenly or following a protracted illness. The couple’s ages and whether they have children living at home both come into play too, especially as the family copes in the immediate days after the death and seeks some degree of normalcy, though normal will have already taken on new meaning. The real struggle begins when the last person has been menachem avel and the shivah house is left to echo in silence. Complex financial, legal, mental

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

health, and social welfare challenges are among the harrowing obstacles a surviving spouse—and if there are children, now also a solo parent—faces during the grieving process, especially in the early stages. There’s a tidal wave of paperwork to contend with, torturous waits on hold with the bank, and the pressure of day-to-day obligations, from remembering to send in the mortgage payment to just getting out of bed. Meanwhile, widows and widowers miss the intimacy and companionship of their marriages. And they often have no idea how or where to begin picking up the pieces. One way this sense of disorientation manifests is in widow fog, a real phenomenon experienced by women and men alike. Grief overtakes the brain, which fights to function properly. The mind runs on autopilot, and recall is limited. Sari Kahn, who lost her husband Ari while in her thirties and raising young children, says that when she went to the mall to buy something for his sheloshim, she had no idea where in the parking lot she’d left her car. Complicating matters is the disappointment some widows and widowers may experience when they seek support from relatives. Friendships—even those they expected to rely on most—might vanish overnight, or slowly ebb over time, with new ones filling the empty space. “My husband died on 12/25. My close friends on 12/24 were no longer in my life by 12/26,” recalls Maureen Ash, who was left to raise four children by herself when her husband died suddenly. “Yet many new friends became my confidantes on the day after his death.” Another variable is how the loss of a spouse plays out differently for men

and women. There are statistically fewer widowers than widows, and men tend to remarry more quickly, especially if they are raising young children who have been left motherless. There are old presumptions too—that women can carry the daily, practical load by themselves, but will struggle to pay the bills, while men can manage financially on their own, but will collapse beneath the yoke of household chores and meal planning. Neither is completely or always true. For example, widows may have always been their family’s primary breadwinner. Sarah Rivka Kohn—the founder of Zisel’s Links & Shlomie’s Club, which supports children who have lost a parent—points out that widowers might have had to cut their work hours to care for a sick spouse and assume most of the responsibilities at home. Widows and widowers face many of the same challenges as those who are divorced or unmarried in the couplecentric Orthodox community, such as having to make Shabbat plans week after week if they do not wish to spend it alone. Yet someone who has lost a spouse must do so while carrying the additional burden of grief, and it may be complicated for them at times. “A few families truly saved our lives and I owe them gratitude beyond words for inviting us over for meals,” says Maureen. “But at some point, my kids just wanted me to cook for Shabbos and to get their life that they knew back.” But when we as a community step up to help a surviving spouse meet both everyday and ritual needs, it can make all the difference in how they and their families survive the initial trauma of their loss and adjust to the alternate reality of widowhood. As Dr. Alan D. Wolfelt writes in his book, The Journey

Telling Their Stories

M A U R E E N AS H

As told to Merri Ukraincik

ecause my husband died suddenly, I became a widow and my children fatherless from one day to the next. The shock hit me before the grief. My relatives lived hundreds of miles away, and our small Jewish community lacked the formal infrastructure to provide much support. There were no meal trains or fundraisers. A few families we knew from the neighborhood stepped up when our inner circle of local friends, also mourning the loss, could not. I attended a non-Jewish grief group. It was my only option. I made new friends, mostly divorced parents who discussed the challenges of single parenting. I felt their pain. Still, the term rattled me because I was the only parent. I had no alternating Shabboses off to recharge, no child support. I was a full-time graduate student working toward my nurse practitioner degree. I hardly slept. Since I could never commit to a carpool, my kids didn’t participate in after-school activities. There weren’t enough hours in a day. These were some of the secondary layers of grief I contended with. Most painful was the loneliness, the sense that we were generally off the community radar. We had Shabbos meal invitations for the first few weeks, but otherwise, no one marshalled the forces. Whether they thought I was managing on my own or had no idea how to approach us, I cannot say, though I refused to become bitter or let sadness consume me. My children were sixteen, thirteen, nine and five when my husband died. They were all hurting, but their challenges varied because of their different ages. For

months, a neighbor took them to shul on Friday night, giving me my one hour of quiet each week. When I went with them to shul on Shabbos morning, I often got the “sad look.” At some point, I started hosting guests for Shabbos meals, even on occasions when we were invited out. The kids wanted to be home, but not alone. It was hard, yet it helped us heal. Needing stability, we stayed where

through Grief, the support an individual gets during their “grief journey will have a major influence” on their ability to heal. No one can or should try to walk this road alone. No one should have to.

Striking a Kind Balance

Most painful was the loneliness, the sense that we were generally off the community radar. we were for another five years. When my third child was about to enter high school, I felt it was a natural cutoff point and a good time for reflection. I realized that no one, not even the kindest, most empathic individual could know what we were going through if he or she hadn’t experienced it. We needed a fresh start in a new community. Reflecting now, twenty-one years later, remarried and with my children grown, I think the most important thing I was missing in those first years of widowhood was a sense of agency. I was deep in the daily mechanics of running a household alone with few

Jewish communal life pivots on acts of chesed—on practical assistance to new mothers and those who recently had surgery or families coping with longterm illness. But it is critically important

resources and four young children whose own physical, emotional and personal needs left me unable to tie my own shoes. I wanted overtures of help that gave me options, that opened a dialogue. Can I take care of X for you? If not X, then what about Y? What I didn’t want was pity, or a blanket offer that required me to know what I needed in that moment. I was trying to put our lives back together. Whatever other families had on their plates—preparing for yom tov, getting their children ready for the new school year—we had too. In my head I was shouting, “Take my kids along when you go sneaker shopping with yours. Drive carpool for me so my kids can participate in a chug. Please, just pick something and do it!” The moments when I was at a total loss intensified what we were missing. When my son was ready to shave, for example, I had no idea how to teach him. In the end, a family friend took him to a ballgame. The outing included a grooming lesson. Many people don’t know what to say to a mourner and certainly have no idea what to say to a widow who has just lost her husband. Erring on the side of saying nothing is much better than saying something uncaring. It was freeing when I learned to give people the benefit of the doubt. What’s most important is that a widow and her children feel they have a safety net. Because things get really tough after the shivah ends, when everyone else goes home and she is left staring at her husband’s empty chair.

that widows and widowers also receive the kindness and support they require, as delineated in the Torah. In Shemot (22:21-23), we are taught how to treat the most vulnerable members of society. “If you mistreat him, [beware,] for if he cries out to Me, I will surely hear his cry.” “Im aneh te’aneh oto, ki im tza’ok yitzak eilai, shamoa eshma tza’akato.” Hashem Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

SAMCHAINU

Finding Sisterhood and Joy Samchainu, the largest organization for the Orthodox Jewish widow, was born at a dining room table. Shani Waldman recalls how in 2007, she and co-founder Breindy Halberstam, both widows, decided to host a few women who had also lost their spouses. There was no strategic plan to build an organization. It evolved naturally, all by word of mouth as their numbers grew. “Widows found us. We needed each other because no one else grasped what we were going through. The hardest part of any tzarah is the loneliness.” From the beginning, the goal of Samchainu was to create a community. It is not exclusively a bereavement group. Rather, monthly meetings focus on lifting the spirits of women who carry the weight of the world as caregivers to their families. “We want them to feel less isolated, but also to enjoy life. We nurture and pamper them,” she notes, with trips, an annual Shabbat retreat in a hotel, flowers on their birthdays and gifts before yom tov. Samchainu has grown into a network of more than 2,600 women. Waldman learned Excel to keep track of all the names. Yet the organization still hosts no gala dinners or fundraising appeals, relying solely on the generosity of private donors to preserve its members’ dignity. Its volunteers are mostly widows themselves. Waldman stresses that it is hard for women who are used to handling everything to suddenly accept that they can’t go it alone and that they need extra kindness. “They should never feel pitiful for relying on support.”

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

Himself is especially concerned about the needs of the orphan and the widow. “. . . asher lo yisa panim v’lo yikach shochad, oseh mishpat yasom v’almanah, v’ohev ger latet lo lechem v’simlah— [Hashem . . . ] otherwise shows no favor and takes no bribe, but upholds the cause of the fatherless and the widow . . . providing food and clothing” as it says in Devarim (10:17-18). Rabbi Steven Miodownik, mara d’atra of Congregation Ahavas Achim in Highland Park, New Jersey, cautions that we must follow the Torah’s guidance with sensitivity. “We have to create a delicate balance in [helping widows and widowers]. No one should ever be made to feel like someone else’s chesed project. Our support to these families who are hurting should come in a dignified and

crisis. Most helpful is when friends or neighbors who know the grieving families well and understand the nuances of their specific circumstances become the angels who take up the mantle of responsibility. In some communities, this happens naturally. In others, families fall off the radar. Since almost all Jewish communal experiences have the potential to magnify feelings of loss, Rabbi Miodownik stresses the importance of being sensitive in both word and deed. “Everything is centered around couples, from our shul dues structure to the honorees chosen for our annual dinners. We have an obligation to protect [those who are alone] from pain wherever possible.” Even language can make a difference.

The loss is a loss. However, it’s important to remember that it’s a change of marital status, not a diminishment of the individual. organic way.” For example, better to nurture a friendship and reach out to a widow or widower naturally, rather than call on the same day every month, which might make her or him feel like an item checked off a list. For Jeffrey Korbman, the help he received was lifesaving when he lost his first wife suddenly twenty-eight years ago, leaving him the only parent of a toddler. “I will never know the full scope of what members of our shul did for us, but it made it possible for me to recover—everything from babysitting to finances to helping me write a will and encouraging me to date when I was ready.” Meals during the shivah and the initial weeks of mourning are usually a given. Harder is providing for ongoing—and evolving—needs as the family proceeds through the grieving process and the community moves on to the next

Instead of offering both single and couple rates for shul events, we should simply use the inclusive “per person.” One widow suggested that checks from a chesed fund bear only the name of the shul, rather than something like “fund for the needy.” So too, an embracing synagogue environment can provide enormous comfort to individuals and families facing dramatically altered circumstances—if they can make it there on Shabbat and yamim tovim at all. Someone might offer to watch a widower’s children every Shabbat so he can attend minyan. A widow without that option might find it too much of a struggle to get her toddlers out of the house. After her husband Josh passed away, Johanna Granoff Cohen remembers, “I was lucky when my kids and I made it to a Shabbos meal at a friend’s house on time.”

Tzippy Russ-Fishbane, a licensed clinical social worker in New Jersey, says that the camaraderie and connections found in shul can be lifesaving for surviving spouses in their fifties and up, which is the age group she counsels. She adds that

this is especially true during the early retirement stage—from around age sixty-five through eighty. Though still independent, most widows and widowers at that stage of life no longer have the fulfillment of a career, and if they were caregivers to

an ailing spouse, they have lost that responsibility as well. They have likely been empty nesting for a while already, too. And while they may be able to spend Shabbat and two- or three-day holidays with their adult children, families are often geographically

Telling Their Stories

S T E P H E N B R E SS L E R

y wife Linda (Leah) and I met at Northeastern University; we got married in 1969. She was twenty and I was twenty-three. We were married almost fifty-two years. Leah was wonderful—bright, beautiful, spiritual, friendly and outgoing, always smiling, a loving wife and mother. After we got married, we became part of the Bostoner Rebbe’s community in Brookline, Massachusetts. We were both active in the community. In my midthirties, I was president of the shul. Leah was president of the sisterhood. Over the years, she worked for the Boston Jewish Federation, an environmental engineering company and as staff accountant for a law firm. Leah had numerous health issues. She was diabetic, had heart problems, was a cancer survivor, and survived a stroke as well. I retired in 2013 after forty years as a public official so I could be her caregiver. Unfortunately, however, I was diagnosed with lymphoma in December 2019, and spent much of 2020 and the first three months of 2021 in and out of the hospital receiving chemotherapy and other treatments. At the same time, in 2021, Leah was also in the hospital but in a different building. Covid restrictions prevented us from seeing each other. Our

As told to Steve Lipman

son was trying to manage it all. At one point, both Leah and I were in different ICUs; our son almost lost both of us at the same time. Leah passed away on the morning of March 28, 2021—the first day of Pesach—of congestive heart failure. The Shabbos before Pesach, she was on life support. My son and I were at the hospital. I was frantic. The doctors and nurses said to take her off of life support. But I did not want to take my wife off of life support. I put my trust in Hashem. Miracles happen. Though Leah had been sick, her death was a surprise. In our years together, she had overcome many health crises. I thought that with Hashem’s help, she would survive this too. During my time in the hospital and after Leah died, the Bostoner Rebbe was in touch with me by phone. He officiated at Leah’s funeral. Because of my own health issues, we could not do an in-person shivah—I didn’t have visitors. Instead, I took telephone calls. That helped, though it didn’t have the intimacy and comfort of being with people, which I experienced when my father and mother had died. I really appreciated the help from members of the community who shopped for me, brought me food and gave me rides to doctor appointments.

My advice on relating to a widower? The main thing is to listen.

People were very generous. Community support was there whenever I let it be known that I needed it. For months after Leah died, it was very difficult for me. I missed her presence, our day-to-day conversations, her laughter. We used to do most everything together. That was gone. In the beginning, I would go to the cemetery every day and talk to her about my day. It was a one-way conversation. A friend suggested I speak to a grief counselor. I didn’t. I was speaking regularly to my sister and my son, who alternately stayed with me in the early days following Leah’s passing, as well as to Leah’s sister and others in her extended family. That gave me the emotional support I needed. Because of my chemotherapy, which began in January 2020, my immune system was wiped out. My oncologist advised me to avoid being indoors with people for lengthy periods, and especially to avoid crowds. I missed going to shul and socializing with friends in the community. And I wasn’t able to say Kaddish; after my parents died, I’d been in shul every day. It was a very, very difficult time. My advice on relating to a widower? The main thing is to listen. It really depends on what the widower wants to share. And I would say to someone in my situation: be straightforward with what you need. Steve Lipman is a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Telling Their Stories

J O H A N N A G R A N O F F CO H E N

As told to Merri Ukraincik

became a widow and solo parent ten years ago. That I have had no one to balance my parenting strengths and weaknesses with has been one of the hardest parts of doing this alone. My husband Josh was structured and disciplined. I’m chaotic. I tried to be more like him for a while, but it was impossible. I also missed having someone to watch me parent up close and tell me if I was doing it right, so from the start, I had a lot of self-doubt. In my view, parenting solo seems completely different from parenting singly as a divorced mom. I don’t think

I remain a widow. It’s an intrinsic part of who I am. it’s necessarily worse or more challenging. On the one hand, I get to make all the decisions without asking anyone else. On the other, I have to make all the decisions by myself. After Josh died, I was alone with four young children. The only other person who had loved them like I did was gone. Every milestone felt bittersweet without him to live it with me. It only intensified my own sense of loss to know what he was missing. Our kids were then four, six, nine and eleven. Our oldest is now twenty-one. They’ve grown up without him. In the beginning, nothing made any sense; yet the world kept spinning. I don’t know what we would have done without the support of our local Orthodox Jewish community. I’ve been in grief groups with widows from all kinds of backgrounds, and so few of them got anything like the kind of help we did, even those who were part of other faith-based communities. It was the concrete support that made all the difference. People picked up my kids from school and set up their playdates on Shabbos. We went to the same families each week for Shabbos dinner and lunch, 74

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and we were always late. I just couldn’t get out of the house on time or pull it together during those early years. Still, they were always happy to see us. As the kids got older and time passed, it got harder to parent alone. People expect you to return to your old self. The kids eventually reached some degree of back-to-normal, certainly more than I had. As a widow, nothing felt normal because my husband still wasn’t there and our house was in chaos and I was entirely responsible for my four children. Reflecting now, I wonder how I could have given them more stability. Our lives were so stressful for so long. I had widow fog and forgot about all sorts of things like yeshivah forms and well checkups. For nearly two years, I failed to schedule their dentist appointments. Inevitably, they had cavities. These things happen even in households where the father is there. I knew it wasn’t the end of the world, but I couldn’t help but question if that would’ve happened had I been a more organized mother. We talked about their father every day from the outset. I found ways to bring him up and connect him to our conversations, mentioning his favorite ice cream, for example. But that lessened as the years passed without him and the kids grew and focused on their own interests and activities. I still think about him every day, though we talk about him less. Josh missed out on so much, and the kids missed out on him being proud of them. They are older now, coming into their own. One has developed Josh’s sense of humor. Another has his taste in comics and wears his old character t-shirts. When I see this, and realize that our loss did not define who they are as individuals, I feel like I met that major solo parenting goal. Yet I remain a widow. It’s an intrinsic part of who I am. For the kids, we have always been a family of five. That’s what they remember. But I think of us as a family of six. One of us just isn’t here.

dispersed. Even when family lives nearby, it’s not always practical or possible for the parent who is left alone to spend every Shabbat with them. While many in this population succeed in creating new lives for themselves, those who Russ-Fishbane says are referred to her by their medical doctors are struggling to adapt to their new circumstances. “They are at serious risk for depression,” she says. Rabbi Miodownik observes that even after the thirty days of saying Kaddish for a wife have ended, oftentimes the built-in schedule of minyanim provides a sense of purpose for older widowers. Likewise, the daily routine fills in their time and can serve as a balm for the long term. Russ-Fishbane notes that while men are usually less likely to be vulnerable about their emotions in group spaces, the handshaking after davening gives them much-needed human contact and feelings of friendship. Older women who are used to walking to shul with their husbands on Shabbat may feel less inclined to go without them, unwilling to face the painful absence on the other side of the mechitzah. They can easily become invisible to the wider community without this regular, public framework for gathering and social engagement. For support, notes RussFishbane, they often find sisterhood in their mourning. They are more inclined than widowers to join bereavement groups when they are available locally, and to gather for Shabbat meals together, rotating who gets to play hostess. However, not all of them will accept invitations from friends who are still couples because those settings serve as another reminder of their loss.

ZISEL’S LINKS & SHLOMIE’S CLUB

Widows of all ages who are used to being caregivers are sometimes the most hesitant to accept help themselves. They are just managing to keep their heads above water— coping, getting their families onto stable ground, and providing their children with a sense of normalcy. They rarely have the luxury of thinking about their own personal needs. It takes a significant mind shift to be on the receiving end of emotional, financial and practical support. “I remind our members that Hashem has laid a massive tzarah at their doorstep,” says Shani Waldman, the co-founder of Samchainu, the largest support network for Orthodox Jewish widows in the US. “There is no shame in accepting the help they need.” One woman, now an active member of Samchainu, originally demurred when a friend invited her to one of the organization’s events. She felt lucky enough to have a supportive family. But she eventually attended and found comfort in the companionship of other widows. “The support of peers in a similar situation is very different from the support of family. One does not contradict or replace what the other can offer,” Waldman observes.

Comfort in the Details Because each widow or widower has different needs, Kohn recommends taking cues from the individual about what they might, or might not, want when figuring out the best way to be of help. “It involves every fiber of their being to sit in that place of grief and continue to function. Be there with them, offer the greatest nechamah you can for them, and don’t expect gratitude,” she stresses.

A North Star for Solo Parents Sarah Rivka Kohn, founder and director of Zisel’s Links & Shlomie’s Club, lost her own mother when she was nine. In April 2006, she turned the isolation and loneliness she experienced into a resource for bereaved frum teenaged girls. What began as a newsletter featuring support articles about coping with parental loss soon became a series of Shabbat get-togethers, eventually inspiring a Shabbaton and a new organization that provides recreational, emotional and practical support, even a store where teens can go clothing shopping. While the organization now works with children and teens, both girls and boys, it is also the north star for widows and widowers navigating the choppy waters of solo parenting. “We’ve grown based on what they’ve needed for their kids,” Kohn notes. Among the most critical resources it provides are referrals and funding for therapy, making it possible for children who are struggling with the loss of a parent to get the mental health services they require. Given the limitations of a solo income and the financial burden of therapy, this support comes as a huge relief to families, many of whom are swamped with medical bills from a deceased spouse’s illness. The organization offers support groups for widows and stepmoms. There is also a smaller Zoom group for widowers, but Kohn wishes more men would participate. “Widowers seem to have less energy to grapple with their emotions while struggling to manage everyday practicalities.” The groups help parents understand how their children are faring in treatment and gives them answers to their questions. Are my kids getting better? What’s normative? Are they okay? Other services include pro bono legal aid and trust and estate guidance from experts. These are important sources of support to parents now going it alone who want to secure their children’s future. “We want the parents and children to know that grief is a healing process, that sadness is okay,” asserts Kohn. “We give them the tools to help them find their way through it.”

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Telling Their Stories

R A B B I S H A U L RO S E N B L AT T

lana and I met in 1989; she was a madrichah and I was a madrich at a Discovery program in Jerusalem. We got to know each other, and a bond developed between us. Once we started dating, it became apparent to us very quickly that it was a match made in heaven. We moved to London in 1991 when our first son was born. I set up Aish UK, and subsequently moved on to other organizations. Elana was a beautiful person inside and outside, spiritual, deeply compassionate and unselfish. In 1998, she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. It was pretty clear that it was terminal. We had four young children and she wanted to stay alive for them. She used to say cancer is a funny disease—you usually get to be in very good health until the very end. Indeed, she was healthy for a long time. Then, from one day to the next, she started struggling to breathe. They admitted her to the hospital. The oncologist said time is short. “She might die today. I don’t believe she can live more than two weeks.” She lived for another six—the best six weeks of our married life. It was very painful, but a very beautiful time as well. Living with a deadline to your relationship makes you appreciate each other. Elana passed away in August 2001. It was utterly devastating. I didn’t know if I was coming or going. Had I been able to, I would have traveled the world to run away from the pain. But I had four young kids and had to stay and face life instead.

As told to Steve Lipman

During the shivah period, the most common thing people said was that Elana was an angel. At one point, the pain was so intense that I recall going into the garden and physically gasping for breath. There was tremendous support in the Orthodox community. That made a huge difference for me and my kids. At the same time, a widower is somewhat of an outsider in the frum community. The model in our community is a two-parent family. If you’re not, there’s no obvious place for you to go. I felt disconnected. It was very lonely. I don’t blame anyone because no one can understand what it’s like unless he or she has been through it. But there’s not a lot of understanding. There was no support group, which I would have appreciated; I joined a non-Jewish online support group. My advice: Be very sensitive and very careful about suggesting shidduchim to a widower or widow. Wait for them to come to you. Once I did start dating, I was offered inappropriate matches. I felt like I was damaged goods. I was an emotionally healthy, well-established, financially stable young man in my thirties with a great track record in marriage. Why would someone be selling themselves short if they married me? When Elana was sick, we needed help with the kids. Chana was a great nanny; the kids loved her, and Elana loved her. Chana expected to work six months with us and move on. At that point, she was the main caregiver. When Elana died, Chana stayed on. She felt she could not leave our kids. Chana softened Elana’s passing for

them, but also for me. As time moved on, I felt myself growing emotionally closer to Chana, and the feeling was mutual. (Obviously, we observed the laws of yichud.) I asked her to leave. “If you stay any longer, we will get married,” I told her. “And you do not want to marry a widower with four kids.” I had to pressure her to leave. When she left, it was almost like I was mourning Elana properly because Chana had cushioned the blow. Those months were the worst part of the experience. Too early, I decided I needed to date again, but could not get Chana out of my mind. Ultimately, I felt that maybe Hashem was speaking to me. I called Chana and said, “Would you be interested in going out in a proper manner?” She was open to that. Hashem had sent a gift to both of us. This month is our twentieth anniversary. Some people find a spouse who is perfect for them. I was lucky—Hashem sent me two.

Rabbi Shaul Rosenblatt is director of the London-based Rabbinical Training Academy and author of Why Bad Things Don’t Happen to Good People (Beit Shemesh, 2016) and Mean What You Pray (Beit Shemesh, 2022).

Some people find a spouse who is perfect for them. I was lucky—Hashem sent me two. 76

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Neither grief nor kindness has an expiration date. Another rule of thumb is to keep offers of support specific. Asking “can I do anything?” boils down to an offer of nothing. Most widows and widowers, especially in the beginning, have no idea what to answer. Ehrenpreis notes that in the secular world, Thanksgiving through December is an exceptionally hard time for widows and widowers. Many people who are alone feel further isolated and sink into seasonal depression. Orthodox Jews experience this every Shabbat and yom tov. “It’s a constant conundrum,” she stresses. “The loss is a loss. However, it’s important to remember that it’s a change of marital status, not a diminishment of the individual.” She recommends inviting people over with this in mind, making them feel welcomed and valued for who they are as people, not because they are widowed. Again, be specific. Instead of, “We would love to have you over some time,” say, “We’d be delighted if you could join us for lunch this Shabbos.

Maybe bring one of your delicious salads?” Call a widow and invite her to join you at an upcoming shiur or community event. Say you’ll be glad to drive her if she’d like. That way she won’t have to arrive alone. Since we all live according to the same calendar, other ways to be of help are those that reflect what we are busy with in our own lives. At the market on Thursday? Consider texting a widow to ask what you can get her for Shabbat. See if a widow or widower would like the gift of a few hours of cleaning help on erev yom tov. Maybe send over a kugel for the family to enjoy on Friday afternoon or drop off a gift card to their favorite shop just because. Reach out to include them in your holiday parties. Call to say hello. For solo parents with children of the opposite gender, offer to accompany the kids to shul, then sit with them. Arrange to have them over for a playdate so the mom or dad can get an otherwise elusive Shabbat nap. While shopping for your own family’s school supplies, buy theirs

too. Take the family’s turn in the carpool rotation—for the entire soccer season. It’s important to remember that solo parents rarely get rest or a reprieve. As Korbman reflects, “Only someone who has been widowed can understand the experience. It changes one’s life forever. The feelings of loss become manageable but are never entirely gone.” For this reason, Russ-Fishbane advises, “Don’t see only what is visible on the outside. Look deeper. Many widows and widowers are suffering quietly, especially if they had long, happy marriages. They need to feel engaged, to feel that life is worth living.” Ultimately, it’s not just what we do for a surviving spouse, but how we show love and position ourselves in their lives, both as friends and as a community, without the expectation of a quid pro quo. If a widow or widower refuses help in the beginning, give them time. Pick up the thread later. Gently. Neither grief nor kindness has an expiration date.

Resources Zisel’s Links & Shlomie’s Club provides loving support and an array of services to children and teens coping with the loss of a parent as well as guidance to widows and widowers navigating the world of solo parenting. www.wereinittogether.org Nagilla is a supportive network that provides financial, emotional and other resources to widows throughout the US and Canada. nagillaorg.wordpress.com Samchainu is a supportive community of Orthodox Jewish widows that gives them a lifeline and opportunities to take breathers from the unique pressures they face. www.samchainu.org Ze Lazeh was founded in Israel more than thirty years ago to support widows and orphans struggling emotionally and functionally. zeleze.org On My Own … But Not Alone by Ahava Ehrenpreis (New York, 2019). Inspirational stories and practical guidance on everything from halachah to personal finance for women who are unmarried, widowed or divorced. Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

JUST BETWEEN US Readers are invited to use this forum to express personal views and address issues of concern to fellow Jews. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the policy or opinion of the Orthodox Union.

CONTEMPLATING A MOVE? What You Should Be Thinking About By Rabbi Yechiel and Rebbetzin Adina Morris

s a rabbinical couple in a major Jewish community, we hear some common questions from young couples contemplating a move to Southfield, Michigan, home to a growing and vibrant frum community: What are the job opportunities? What are the yeshivot and day schools like? What kosher food and restaurants are available? What about an eruv, mikvaot, housing costs, and so on? During this exploratory stage, what we rarely hear is, “How can I get involved in and contribute to the community?” In more than twenty years of serving as rabbi and rebbetzin at the Young Israel of Southfield, we have learned that a great community is sustained not only by what the community offers in terms of amenities (although those are obviously important), but by what the members are willing to contribute to the life of the community. Take, for example, Sara Mor, who is a staff attorney at a US district court. Sara moved here three years ago with her husband and two young sons. They have been blessed with two more boys since their arrival. Originally from West Rabbi Yechiel and Rebbetzin Adina Morris have served as the rabbi and rebbetzin at the Young Israel of Southfield for the past twenty-one years.

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Orange, New Jersey, Sara was used to welcoming new faces to town there and in the multiple cities where she and her husband, who was in medical school and residency, had lived during the previous eight years. Once settled in Southfield, she understood the importance of becoming involved in the community but didn’t want, in her words, to “recreate the wheel.” Rather, she decided to volunteer where she saw a genuine need. “When I come to a new community, I like to first observe,” Sara recently told us. “I don’t assume that the community will have everything I am looking for. So I take notice. What is already in place? What might be lacking? What can I do to make a positive impact?”

Soon after she moved to Southfield, Sara found a niche that combined her passions: children and education. She began working on Shabbat morning programming for some of our youngest members. While our shul has an attractive playroom for toddlers, well stocked with age-appropriate toys and Jewish-themed books, and a babysitter tending to the children’s needs while their parents daven in the main sanctuary, Sara felt more was needed. And so, Tot Shabbat was born! Each week, a different parent tells a Torah story to the toddlers, sings an assortment of Jewish songs and tefillot with them, and shares a snack. Parent volunteers run the program on a rotating basis. The children look forward to Tot Shabbat,

and it inspires more young parents to bring their children to shul. When evaluating whether a particular community is a good fit for one’s family, one should not only look at the amenities it provides, but he or she should also focus on two essential questions: What kind of impact can I make that will strengthen the community for me and all who live there, and how will my unique contributions help me grow as an individual? “At the heart of every community, no matter the size or location, are the people who make up that community,” says Sara. “They are its lifeblood. They are what makes it such a great place to live, grow, thrive and raise a family.”

our community for Friday night and yom tov use. She joined a dedicated group of women who conducted a major fundraising campaign to raise the remaining needed funds for a new mikvah. A clinical psychology doctoral candidate who happens to be a social media whiz, Ayelet prepared an impressive social media campaign for what turned out to be our largest fundraiser ever, bringing in over $400,000. With the added revenue, the mikvah is slated to begin construction this spring. “I like to think of our community as a patch quilt,” Ayelet says. “Together we make up a beautiful tapestry with rich color and texture. What’s amazing

At the heart of every community, no matter the size or location, are the people who make up that community. They are its lifeblood. They are what makes it such a great place to live, grow, thrive and raise a family. When new members move into the community, we encourage them to volunteer and get involved. We discuss with them what components of a community are of value to them and where they feel they can best contribute. Two other examples of proactive volunteerism: Ayelet Ellenbogen, originally from Teaneck, New Jersey, moved to Southfield last summer. A real “doer” who is committed to working for the klal, she had seen her parents and grandparents act as role models. “I was taught early on that if you see something that needs improvement, don’t complain; do something about it,” she says. Shortly after moving to Southfield, Ayelet became aware of a genuine concern: we no longer had a viable mikvah within walking distance of

to me is how you can see each person’s contribution, and how together we create a warm and vibrant community, turning new friends into family.” Asher Goldberg, a senior infrastructure software engineer, grew up in Chicago and lived in multiple cities in the metropolitan New York area and Israel before settling down to live in Southfield ten years ago. He had always been involved in community volunteerism, growing up in a home where shul as well as Bnei Akiva were paramount. As a national board member of Bnei Akiva of the US and Canada, Asher played a vital role in helping to bring a new shaliach family to Southfield, elevating the level of Torah learning and Religious Zionism in our community. He also serves as a board member of Yeshivat Akiva/Farber Hebrew Day

School, the local Modern Orthodox day school. Asher regularly leins and coordinates Keriat HaTorah in the shul. And with his culinary passion and expertise, he helps cook for the annual Men’s Seder, Shavuot Siyum and BBQ, men’s monthly learning program and weekly kiddushim. “You can attend minyanim, shiurim and programming in any community anywhere,” he says. “But supporting a community is more than just participating and giving financially. Being involved in the community as a volunteer can yield a far greater return on investment and help grow and strengthen the community for years.” We wholeheartedly endorse his message: Get involved, volunteer and participate. Be the change you want. Sara wanted to keep doing more. Although our shul offers an array of adult education classes and lectures throughout the year, our formal Education Committee suffered due to Covid. Sara worked hard rebuilding the Education Committee in order to create ongoing learning opportunities for our entire membership. To date, the Committee has planned learning chaburot for both men and women, and has brought to our shul a steady stream of compelling lecturers on topics including health and modern medicine in the twenty-first century, the interface between halachah and contemporary Western values, and the interplay between democratic principles and Jewish tradition in the State of Israel. “Even if you move to a community for a short time, you can accomplish so much,” says Sara. “You can provide a new service to benefit and strengthen the community, and then pass the baton to someone else when you leave. In the meantime, you have bolstered learning and growth for your family and community, and all your hard work to bring more meaning will continue on even after you leave. That is your legacy.” Amenities are certainly needed for a thriving Jewish community. But it’s the people who make great communities. So what about you? In your community, what are you willing to contribute?

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THE CHEF’S TABLE

A Fresh & Flavorful Pesach By Naomi Ross

“W

ow, it’s so good! It doesn’t even taste kosher l’Pesach!” Why is that the best compliment a home cook hopes to receive during holiday time? While cooking for Pesach can be challenging with alternate products and many substitutions, I tend to shift my cooking mentality to what objectively tastes good all year round and recipes that do not require chametz or that require only small substitutions. The secret to good Pesach cooking is keeping it fresh and natural. A homemade approach usually tastes better, especially if the ingredients are simple and straightforward. In some cases, I make homemade versions of convenience products, either to save money (Pesach is expensive enough!) or because the quality is way better than some store-bought items. Keep it fresh and flavorful and no one will miss the chametz!

No-Fail Hand Blender Mayonnaise Yields 1 cup

Before mayonnaise was a common pantry condiment, it was a sophisticated homemade accompaniment that could be flavored or personalized with a signature touch, a refined show of classy dining. On Naomi Ross is a cooking instructor and food writer based in Woodmere, New York. She teaches classes throughout the country and writes articles connecting delicous cooking and Jewish inspiration. Her first cookbook, The Giving Table, was released this year.

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Pesach, it is a bit more challenging to produce due to the omission of mustard, which provides extra flavor and stability (mustard is an excellent emulsifier). When good quality mayonnaise is hard to come by, consider making your own and notice the difference. 1 large egg yolk 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon water ½ teaspoon kosher salt ¾ cup neutral flavored oil (e.g. vegetable or safflower) Freshly ground black pepper to taste Combine egg yolk, lemon juice, salt and water in a tall, narrow cup just wide enough to fit the head of the immersion blender to the bottom of the cup. Pour neutral oil on top carefully. Slowly lower the head of the blender down until it is submerged and reaches the bottom of the cup. Hold cup steady with one hand while blending with the other until the color visibly changes to white and a thickened, creamy mayonnaise is created. Slowly lift blender head, pulsing until all oil is incorporated. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper. If consistency is too thick, whisk in 1–2 teaspoons of water or lemon juice until desired consistency is reached. Chill, covered, until ready to use, for up to one week. Chef ’s Notes: Like the store-bought stuff, your homemade mayo can be used as a blank canvas for other flavors and variations—green herb mayo, spicy sriracha mayo, pesto mayo, et cetera.

Tips for “egg-cellent” emulsion success: • Use room temperature eggs. • Be sure to beat eggs until thick and lemon-colored before adding oil. • Oil should be added in droplets at first until emulsion begins; then the oil can go in a little more rapidly. • One egg yolk can absorb up to ¾–1 cup oil. You can use all neutral flavored oil (such as vegetable oil) or a combination of neutral flavored and olive oil. • To fix split mayo, start in a clean bowl with another egg yolk and a few drops of lemon juice. Whisk until pale yellow and starting to thicken, then add the split mixture in a few drops at a time, whisking until incorporated before adding more. Continue slowly whisking in until you reach desired consistency.

Hangar Steak with Chimichurri and Herbed Tomato Salad Yields 4 servings

Argentina’s answer to ketchup, the vinegary herb mélange known as chimichurri is a must to serve with grilled meats. But it’s also a fantastic marinade—after a few hours marinating in chimichurri, hangar steak is moist and flavorful, especially on the grill. Serve steak alongside a refreshing herbed tomato salad, plus extra chimichurri for dipping.

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Hangar Steak with Chimichurri and Herbed Tomato Salad Photos: Baila Gluck

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Citrus Shallot Dressing

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Chimichurri 2 cups packed flat leaf parsley leaves (about 1 large bunch) ¼ cup fresh oregano leaves Pinch of kosher salt 6 garlic cloves, peeled 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded ⅓ cup white wine vinegar 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (from 1 lemon) ¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil 4 hangar steaks, about ½” thick

whole week! This dressing is especially good on any salad with chicken or even just drizzled on sliced avocado.

Herbed Tomato Salad 3 medium vine-ripe tomatoes, diced ½ red onion, minced 1 green bell pepper, diced 2 tablespoons parsley, minced 1 tablespoon fresh oregano, minced 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt, to taste Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Combine garlic, salt, juices and shallot. Whisk until well blended. Add oil in a slow, steady stream, whisking constantly until smooth. Season to taste and adjust seasonings. Serve immediately or store in a cruet/container and refrigerate for up to one week.

Place parsley, oregano, salt, garlic, jalapeño pepper, vinegar and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the chopping blade (“s” blade). Pulse until pulverized. While motor is running, slowly add olive oil until mixture is uniform and well blended. Season to taste with salt or pepper as needed. Transfer mixture to a large container or baking dish, reserving ½ cup chimichurri for serving time. Place steaks in dish, turning to coat with chimichurri. Cover and marinate for at least 3 hours or overnight. Preheat broiler or grill to high heat. Remove steaks from marinade; discard marinade. Broil or grill steaks for 3–4 minutes per side, turning once during cooking. Allow steaks to rest for 5–10 minutes before serving. While steaks are resting, combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss to blend; season to taste, adding more salt or pepper as needed. Serve steaks with reserved chimichurri for dipping and herbed tomato salad.

Citrus Shallot Dressing

Your go-to super fresh salad dressing of choice. Make a double batch for the

1 garlic clove, minced 2–3 pinches salt ¼ cup fresh orange juice (juice of approx. 1 orange) Juice of ½ lemon Juice of 1½ limes 1 large shallot, minced ½ cup olive oil

Chef ’s Notes: • For a perfectly smooth dressing, blend with immersion blender or food processor. • Tangerine Variation: Replace orange and lime juices with fresh juice of 1 tangerine. Increase lemon juice to juice of 1 whole lemon.

Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 15–20 minutes or until apples are very soft and beginning to fall apart (optional strawberries or plums can be added halfway through cooking). Discard cinnamon stick. Using a slotted spoon, transfer apples in batches to food mill (reserve cooking liquid) and blend. Slowly add back cooking water to the apples as needed for desired consistency (the remainder can be discarded). Alternatively, the apples can be pulsed in a food processor (with half of liquid) or mashed with a potato masher until desired consistency is reached. Return applesauce to the same pot (no need to wash!) and place over low heat. Add 2 tablespoons sugar and mix to blend. Season to taste, adding additional sugar a little at a time until desired sweetness is reached. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Transfer to a storage container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. (Applesauce can also be frozen up for to 3 months.)

Homemade Applesauce Yields 3-4 cups

There is nothing like homemade applesauce. For perfectly textured applesauce, I prefer using a food mill with the medium gauge blade—the original manual food processor. A food mill will also hold back peels (so no peeling necessary!) when blending cooked apples. Adding strawberries or plums is purely optional, but does add a lovely rosy color to the applesauce. 3 pounds MacIntosh apples, peeled, cored and quartered Water (about 1–2 cups) 1 cinnamon stick 2–4 tablespoons sugar Optional 1½ cups frozen strawberries, thawed; or 3–4 plums, pits removed and sliced Place apples and cinnamon stick in a large pot and add enough water for apples to be immersed. Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

LEGAL-EASE

WHAT’S THE TRUTH ABOUT. . . WHEN AN EVED IVRI GOES FREE? By Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky

MISCONCEPTION: An eved Ivri (“Jewish servant”)1 goes free in the shemitah year. FACT: An eved Ivri works six full years and goes free at the start of his seventh year of servitude, unless a yovel year arrives first, in which case every eved Ivri goes free. The date of an eved Ivri’s release is calculated on an individual basis, and thus they are not all released at one time. The shemitah year has no relevance to the length of servitude.

Background: To the modern era, the notion of slavery is an anathema, and it may even be troubling to modern Jews that the Torah permits such an institution. Yet, in discussing the concepts of eved Ivri and amah Ivriyah (a “Hebrew maidservant”), the Torah is in essence taking what was an accepted and almost necessary institution and regulating it to make it more humane. The laws of eved Ivri are discussed in various places in the Torah: Shemot 21:2–6 and 22:2, Vayikra 25:39–42, and Devarim 15:12–18. Based on the pesukim, Chazal (summarized in Rambam, Hilchot Avadim 1:1) explained that a Jew can become an eved Ivri to another Jew2 in one of two ways: Rabbi Dr. Ari Z. Zivotofsky is a professor of neuroscience at Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

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1. If a Jew finds himself in abject poverty with no foreseeable way out, he may sell himself to another Jew (Vayikra 25:39).3 2. If a Jew steals and is unable to make restitution,4 the courts can sell him as an indentured servant as a means of his paying back what he stole.5 The Torah writes twice (Shemot 21:2 and Devarim 15:12) that an eved Ivri6 works for six years and goes free at the start of the seventh.7 To what “seventh” is it referring? In general, whenever the Torah gives a rule about six years and then a seventh year, the question can be asked if it is an independent count or linked to the fixed shemitah cycle. Thus, when the Torah (Devarim 15:1) instructs that after seven years debts are canceled, Rashi, quoting the Sifrei, observes that one might have thought that every loan has an independent seven-year life rather than all being linked to the uniform

shemitah count. The Torah therefore revealed (Devarim 15:9) that all loans are uniformly released at the end of the standard shemitah cycle. Similarly, when describing the mitzvah of Hakhel (Devarim 31:10), the Torah says to count seven years. One might have thought to begin a count from that very date, the fortieth year after the Exodus; therefore the Torah explicitly links it to the shemitah cycle (Sotah 41a). In the Torah, the rules of eved Ivri follow immediately after the laws of debt forgiveness, which occurs at the end of shemitah, and the language used for the eved Ivri sounds similar to that used for the shemitah laws (Devarim 15:12): “. . . and he shall serve you six years and in the seventh year you are to send him free.” The Torah also states (Vayikra 25:40) that “until the yovel year shall he work with you.” Yovel is a fixed date and one that is linked to the shemitah cycle. It is thus understandable that one might entertain the possibility that an eved Ivri works until shemitah, the “standard” seventh year, and is then freed. Nonetheless, Jewish tradition is monolithic in its understanding that an eved Ivri has a count unrelated to shemitah and goes free after working six full years.8 The Mechilta (to Shemot 21:2) and the Yerushalmi (Kiddushin 1:2) state explicitly that the six years is from the

date of sale and is not related to shemitah. The Bavli (Arachin 18b) further says that it is not calendar years, i.e., he does not go free when the seventh calendar year commences in Tishrei, but rather it is full years—he goes free after working six full years, on the same date that he started. Thus we see that Chazal anticipated that one might think otherwise and therefore explicitly clarified the matter. In the Sifrei (Re’eh 111–112 [on Devarim 15:1–2]) it states that shemitah does not release an eved Ivri but does cancel loans, and in Sifra (Behar 3:6 [27; on Vayikra 25:13]) it states that while you might have thought shemitah frees an eved Ivri, that is not so; the Torah emphasizes that yovel frees them, but shemitah does not. The Rambam writes (Hilchot Avadim 2:2): “If [an eved Ivri] is sold by the beit din, he works six years9 from the date of sale, and at the beginning of his seventh year he becomes a free person.” The Rambam wants to make sure there is no misunderstanding and thus continues: “. . . if shemitah is one of those six, he works during shemitah.” Rambam may be emphasizing that the eved Ivri does not go free in shemitah in order to counter this potential misunderstanding, or he may be doing so to contrast it with the next halachah that yovel does set an eved Ivri free even if it is within the six years. Centuries after this law was given at Sinai, it was reiterated when the prophet Yirmiyahu rebuked the Jews for reneging on a commitment to free their Hebrew servants and warned that they would be exiled as a result (Yirmiyahu 34:17–20).10 Yirmiyahu (34:14) reminds them: “At “miketz” of seven years, every man should free his Hebrew brother, who had been sold to you; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you. . . .” The second half of the verse clearly states the halachah as given in the Chumash; yet the first half might be interpreted as meaning after seven full years. Ibn Ezra (long commentary to Shemot 21:2) is emphatic that both halves of the verse in Yirmiyahu accord with the accepted halachah. Regarding the seemingly problematic first half, he explains that “miketz” is a terminus, and everything has two termini. Thus, Ibn Ezra stresses, “miketz” in that verse

means the starting terminus of the seventh year, not the ending terminus,11 according perfectly with the second half and with the pasuk in Shemot that says he is set free in the seventh year, which Ibn Ezra (Devarim 15:18) emphasizes is the start of the seventh year. Unlike Ibn Ezra, the Gemara (Arachin 33a) understood “miketz” seven years to mean the end of the seventh year and interpreted that part of the pasuk to be referring to an eved Ivri who had his ear pierced and was working until yovel, which in this instance happened to coincide with the eighth year of his servitude. In the Selichot (minhag Lita) for day four, the pizmon “choker hakol” (ca. early thirteenth century; ArtScroll, p. 148) argues that our exile should have ended long ago since G-d ordained that an eved Ivri works for six years, and many “six years” have passed and yet we are not free. Only an eved Ivri who loves his master stays longer, until yovel, but we have declared no such love for our foreign masters. And while a Jew who is enslaved by a non-Jew does not go free after six years, his relatives are enjoined to redeem him, so we appeal to G-d as our “relative” to redeem us. Despite the agreed-upon understanding that an eved Ivri goes free after working six years and not in shemitah, the notion of freeing an eved Ivri in shemitah has crept into several sources. Targum Pseudo-Yonatan,12 on the pasuk that states the law of eved Ivri, (Shemot 21:2) translates it as understood by Chazal, i.e., if a Jew is sold in order to repay a theft, he works for six years and goes free at the start of the seventh. Yet quite perplexingly, when translating the verse a mere few sentences later about a maidservant (Shemot 21:7), he says that one of the means of her acquiring her freedom is the shemitah year! Similarly, on Shemot 22:2, he says that a person sold by the beit din because of a theft works from the time of his theft until the shemitah year! In an approbation to a book about Targum Pseudo-Yonatan,13 Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach asserts that there is not even a hint in Shas that an eved goes free during the shemitah year, and objects to what he thought was the author trying to find support for this

opinion. In a note in the introduction, the author denies having attempted to find support for that indefensible position, but he does note four other sources that seem to say an eved Ivri and/or an amah Ivriyah goes free in the shemitah year. He mentions the Zohar (vol. 3, 108), Sefer HaKanah (vol. 2), Sefer Yere’im (286),14 and perhaps the most famous example, the twelfth-century Rabbi Joseph ben Isaac Bechor Shor of Orléans (Bechor Shor to Shemot 21:2 and 21:11). A student of Rabbeinu Tam, the Bechor Shor wrote that since there is no plowing or planting or harvesting during shemitah, the master does not need so much help and should send the eved Ivri free. Rabbi Menachem Kasher (Torah Sheleimah, Shemot 21:2:70) adds to the list Chemdat HaYamim HaTeimani (p. 40b). However, Rabbi Kasher argues that except for the Bechor Shor, who unquestionably wrote contra the halachah, all the other sources could be interpreted as using the word “shemitah” to refer to the Hebrew servant’s seventh year. Regarding the Bechor Shor, Rabbi Kasher is left perplexed because while the Bechor Shor was known to try to stick to peshat, Rabbi Kasher says that even the most extreme purveyors of peshat interpretation do not understand this verse as referring to the shemitah year.15 The notion that canceling debts might be linked to freeing slaves finds an echo in ancient “clean slate” decrees in which a powerful ruler would declare that ancestral land sold under duress be returned to its original owner, anyone forced into servitude by debts liberated and debts canceled. There are numerous records of such “economic resets” in the ancient world. Possibly the most famous is the forgiving of debts and the release of prisoners in Egypt in 196 bce as described on the Rosetta Stone. These differ from shemitah/yovel in that they were at the whim of the ruler and thus unpredictable, while in the Torah’s system these events were scheduled and therefore predictable. The institution of eved Ivri exists only in a time period when yovel is observed (Rambam, Hilchot Avadim 1:10) and has thus not been applicable for many centuries. Nonetheless, lessons, both specific and general, about how to relate Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

to a worker can be gleaned from the laws of eved Ivri. The Shulchan Aruch (CM 333:3) says that a worker may quit midday even if he has already been paid and no longer has the money to refund, in which case it is converted to a loan. The Shulchan Aruch then adds a proof text: “to Me the children of Israel are slaves” (Vayikra 25:55), understood to mean that Jews are slaves only to G-d, and a non-slave is always free to quit. The Rema then adds that for the same reason, a worker, even a teacher or a sofer, may not hire himself out to work in someone’s house for more than three years.16 According to some, the three years is derived from the pasuk describing an eved Ivri: “. . . for he has done double the work of a hired hand during the six years. . .” (Devarim 15:18), implying that the six years an eved ivri works is twice that of a regular worker (see Ibn Ezra and Chizkuni based on Yeshayahu 16:14; cf. Rashbam). An eved Ivri must also be treated with respect and be well cared for. Some of the laws that reflect this are: an eved ivri may not be sold at auction so as not to embarrass him (Hilchot Avadim 1:5); he may not be given degrading work or open-ended or frivolous assignments (1:6–7); he must be provided with food, drink and shelter that is commensurate with the master’s lifestyle (1:9); the eved Ivri’s wife and children must be provided for (3:1); and if the master has but one pillow he must give it to the eved Ivri (Tosafot, Kiddushin 20a, s.v. kol, citing Yerushalmi). These requirements led Chazal to declare that anyone who buys an eved Ivri is as if he bought a master for himself (Kiddushin 20a). Notes 1. In this article the term eved ivri will be used rather than “Jewish slave/servant.” An eved Ivri is a Jew who is “owned” in a very limited sense by another Jew as a sort of “servant.” However, his conditions are more akin to a long-term employee than to a slave and do not compare to those of slaves in nineteenth-century United States or enslaved people in many parts of the world today (even if the term slave is not used regarding them). Vayikra 25:39-40 mandates regarding an eved Ivri: “. . . you shall not work him with slave labor. Like a hired laborer or a resident shall he be with you.” His situation is so similar to an employee that Chatam Sofer (5:CM:172) 86

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needed to point out the differences when discussing the rules of an employee backing out of a job. 2. An eved Ivri is a Jew working for another Jew. The rules governing a Jew “owned” by a non-Jew (in a society where Jewish law is followed) and those governing an eved Kena’ani, a non-Jewish slave owned by a Jew, are different and not discussed in this article. 3. The Rambam (Hilchot Avadim 1:1) permits a Jew to sell himself only if he is in abject poverty to the degree that he cannot even afford food. Only such truly dismal circumstances warrant a Jew selling himself to another. If a person sells himself despite not being allowed to do so, Tosefta (Arachin 5:8) says the sale takes effect, while Minchat Chinuch (mitzvah 42:17) opines that the sale is void. 4. Note that a thief is only sold if he lacks the means to pay the value of the stolen item. If he can pay the principal but not the additional penalty (either double or four or five times the principal), he is not sold (Kiddushin 18a—regarding double, Rambam, Hilchot Geneivah 3:2— regarding four or five; Torah Temimah, Shemot 22:2:16 suggests a source for the Rambam). 5. The many halachic differences between these two are enumerated by the Rambam (Hilchot Avadim 3:12). For example, the beit din always sells for six years, while a person who sells himself can do so for more, or, according to the Ritva (Kiddushin 14b), also for less; one sold by the beit din is given a “grant” (ma’anak) upon being freed, while one who sells himself is not; the owner can give him a non-Jewish maidservant as a “wife” if he is sold by the beit din but not if he sells himself; and one sold by the beit din can extend his servitude until yovel by the ear piercing ceremony, while one who sold himself has no such option. 6. Or an amah Ivriyah. A woman is not sold due to theft, but a minor girl can be sold by her destitute father, for a maximum of six years. 7. The Netziv (Shemot 21:2) points out that from the word “chinam” we learn that unlike in other relationships, such as marriage or an eved Kena’ani, an eved Ivri goes free automatically without a need for a get (separation document). The notion of a slave working a fixed number of years was not unheard of in the ancient world. The eighteenthcentury-bce Code of Hammurabi (see J.B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts [New Jersey, 1955], pp.163–177; law 117) specified that if a man in debt sold his wife, son or daughter, they worked for three years and were freed in the fourth year. 8. In a link between shemitah and eved Ivri, the Gemara (Kiddushin 20a) quotes Rabbi

Yose ben Chanina as teaching that the true cause of a Jew ending up as an eved Ivri is from transgressing the prohibition of engaging in commerce with shemitah produce. 9. The Midrash (Shemot Rabbah 30:15) has G-d saying that in parallel to His creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, so too an eved Ivri works for six years and rests on the seventh. 10. Korban Ha’edah (Yerushalmi, Rosh Hashanah 3:5) says that the Jews were redeemed from Egypt in the merit of not enslaving a fellow Jew. 11. Metzudat David (Yirmiyahu 34:14) says similarly. Ibn Ezra notes the ambiguity of “miketz” and which terminus it refers to in Bamidbar 13:25 and Devarim 9:11. He states his position that it means the beginning in Devarim 14:28 and 15:1 (against Chazal in Arachin 28b); and Devarim 31:10 (against Chazal in Sotah 41a and Rosh Hashanah 12b). Rashi (Bereishit 41:1) disagrees with Ibn Ezra and says that “(mi)ketz” always means “end.” Mizrachi and Gur Aryeh explain that Rashi believes that “katzeh” can refer to beginning or end, but (mi)ketz always refers to the end. 12. Targum Pseudo-Yonatan on Chumash was not written by Yonatan ben Uziel (see Megillah 3a, stating that he wrote only on Navi). There are other places where his perush is different from Chazal’s interpretation; for example, on Bamidbar 19:17, his limiting that halachah to an earthenware vessel contradicts a mishnah (Parah 5:5). 13. Kalman Azriel Pinski, Nosei Klei Yehonatan, 3rd ed., 5765. 14. The Sefer Yere’im seems to be selfcontradictory, as in 271 he says explicitly that an eved Ivri does not go free in shemitah. 15. Nahum Sarna takes a clearly nontraditional approach in “Zedekiah’s Emancipation of Slaves and the Sabbatical Year,” in Orient and Occident: Essays presented to Cyrus H. Gordon on the Occasion of his Sixty-fifth Birthday, edited by Harry A. Hoffner, Jr. (1973). 16. See Chavot Ya’ir 140, Shevut Yaakov 1:6 and Chatam Sofer (1:OC:206 and 5:CM:172) regarding the applicability of this to a rabbi or chazan.

INSIDEthe PROGRAMS OF THE ORTHODOX UNION

The Wave Runners By Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph I’ve been writing this piece in my head for a few years while jogging through my neighborhood in New York’s Five Towns. I’m certainly not known as the fastest jogger, but I hope I’m known as the guy who is (almost) always waving hello to every passerby. This habit of mine goes back to when I first started running a few years ago and noticed that when someone smiled or waved at me, it actually helped me run better. Even more importantly, it helped me feel better. As I felt that surge of dopamine during my run, I recalled an article penned by a close friend of mine when we were in college, in which she suggested that people should say hello as they walked the campus, even—and perhaps especially—to students they did not know. At the time, I wondered: is it really necessary to greet everyone? Subsequently, I discovered: Yes it is! In The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness, Harvard Professor Robert Waldinger shares that while one of the keys to well-being correlates to how we take care of our physical health, his surprising finding was in the power of good relationships as a predictor of happiness and a long life. Forming connections with people and

developing meaningful relationships improves our physical and emotional health, literally revitalizing us, bringing contentment and yielding a longer, more fulfilled existence. The positive effects of relationships apply not only to our home lives but also to our connections at work. Recently, Gallup surveyed over 15 million workers, asking, “Do you have a best friend at work?” Only three in ten answered in the affirmative. Waving hello in the office—be it at our amazing headquarters at 40 Rector Street in downtown Manhattan, or wherever you are—does not necessarily mean you are “work BFFs!” But the opportunity to wave hello, smile and connect at work adds not only to our professional lives but to our foundational well-being, health and longevity. With that in mind I’ve been on the road to listen and learn, not only experiencing the incredible programming of our talented team and the inspirational participants, but to say hello, to wave—and to get some waves in return! My travels took me around New York with Rabbi Gideon Black, CEO, New York NCSY; and then to Maryland with Rabbi Jonah Lerner, Regional Director, Atlantic Seaboard NCSY, where I had uplifting

conversations with our professional and lay teams in their newly inhabited offices on Reisterstown Road in Baltimore. Additionally, in the past few months, we’ve had several gatherings with various OU constituents that brought home to me the importance of connecting at work: - In November, we convened OU professional leaders for a retreat at the famous TWA Hotel at JFK Airport. Focusing on the theme “You. Your Team. Your OU,” we spent two days learning how to better connect with ourselves, our teams and the entirety of the OU. There was a lot of waving hello both during and since that retreat. - At the end of December, NCSY convened its annual Yarchei Kallah, bringing together hundreds of NCSY participants and staff from the United States, Canada, Chile and Mexico. The energy in these gatherings is palpable, a beautiful synergy of inspiration, Torah study, Continued on page 89 Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

By Sara Goldberg

We are confident that our partnership with community leaders and policymakers will bring concrete results in the fight against antisemitism. — OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer

Rise up . . . if not, we become complacent and complicit. And we saw the effects of that just in the last century. We’ll be judged generations from now on how we stood up to acts of hatred. — Governor Kathy Hochul

Photos: Ulrich Studios

ADDRESSING ANTISEMITISM In the face of rising antisemitism across the US, in December the OU convened an urgent meeting with federal and local elected officials. The event, held at Lincoln Square Synagogue on New York’s Upper West Side, featured Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, US Senator Chuck Schumer, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams. These prominent speakers addressed leaders of the Orthodox Jewish community’s synagogues and schools, whose members face the threat of increased antisemitism every day. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were 2,717 antisemitic acts nationwide in 2021, a 34 percent

When antisemitism rears its ugly head, if we don’t speak out, it can grow deeper and deeper and deeper. —Senator Chuck Schumer

Antisemitism is not a Jewish issue but a human issue. — Mayor Eric Adams

increase from the previous year. In New York alone, the NYPD recorded that hate crimes more than doubled from 2021 to 2022, with forty-five antisemitic incidents recorded in November 2022 alone. At the summit, Governor Hochul announced a new Hate and Bias Prevention Task Force, a part of the state’s Department of Human Rights, which will operate in all New York counties as both an educational tool and an early-warning and prevention system. Secretary Mayorkas referenced current Department of Homeland Security initiatives to prevent hate crimes, including an antiterrorism branch, a faith council, increased cybersecurity training, and President Biden’s announcement of an interagency group to coordinate a national strategy to counter antisemitism. “While we have accomplished a lot in past years to increase security funding for our communities, the rising threat of antisemitism demands more resources and more action. We will not rest until all our communities are adequately protected and safe,” said OU Executive Director of Public Policy Nathan Diament.

Representatives from the OU, Beth Medrash Govoha, and New Jersey’s Jewish Federations met with FBI members in Newark in December to discuss the security and protection of the state’s Jewish communities following antisemitic threats against New Jersey shuls in November. In addition to reviewing the resolution of the security alert, the meeting highlighted the continuing efforts of the FBI and local law enforcement to combat antisemitic threats and helped JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023 strengthen communication and relationships between the FBI and communal leaders.

Bringing Mishnah Yomi to the Next Generation With the start of Seder Moed in the Mishnah Yomi cycle, in December about 1,500 junior high school students from twelve schools nationwide joined OU Torah Initiative’s new All Mishnah Jr. program. Led by student ambassadors in grades six through eight, participants committed to learning two mishnayot a day to complete all twenty-four chapters of Masechtot Shabbat and Megillah in only a few months, with opportunities to win swag and prizes at different milestones. Provided with a complimentary ArtScroll Mesorah Publications Mishnayot, students completed their daily learning in chavrutot or learning groups or by listening to shiurim on the All Mishnah app. “We’ve been inspired by the consistent initiative of these junior high students to incorporate daily elective Torah learning into their already packed school day,” noted OU Torah Initiatives Executive Director Rabbi Moshe Brandsdorfer. Learn more at allmishnahjr.com.

I’m on vacation and the mikvah here seems to be closed. Who can help me? Where can I find helpful tips to budget properly for my growing Jewish family?

NAVIGATOR

Have a personal or communal need? Not sure where to start or what resources are available? Meet the Navigator, the Jewish help desk for non-emergency situations created by the OU’s Community Projects and Partnerships. The Navigator utilizes a network of thousands of OU partners worldwide—shuls, non-profit organizations, businesses and community leaders—as well as a professional staff involved in all areas of Jewish life to bring you the best answer. Submit your questions today via email or WhatsApp at ou.org/navigator.

Continued from page 87

singing, dancing and strengthening of Jewish identity. - On January 1, at the Biennial Convention and Meeting, the OU bid farewell and expressed its deep gratitude to outgoing OU President, Emeritus Mark (Moishe) Bane and the outgoing Board of Directors. At the event, we also welcomed fourteen new Board members and our new President, Mitchel Aeder. It was wonderful to spend time catching up with OU lay leaders while celebrating the accomplishments of the past few years. - In mid-January, OU-JLIC couples from over twenty-five college campuses gathered for a weekend of inspiration, professional

development and connection. Living “hi” as we pass one another on the on campus can be lonely, and street. Chazal highlight the behavior spending time with colleagues who of Rabbi Matya ben Charash who was can really understand what they makdim bishlom kol adam, greeted are experiencing is critical to the every person (Avot 4:16), and Rabbi well-being of these couples. Yochanan ben Zakkai who did the Building deep connections with same (Berachot 17a). Clearly, this is a colleagues is something we genuinely significant Jewish value. value at the OU. But as my friend So if you see me running by either from college taught me, saying hello at the office or on Central Avenue in to strangers is not to be trifled with. the Five Towns, or at any of our many What does it mean to say hello? The worldwide locations, please make gemara in Ta’anit 12b states that when sure to wave and say hello; it’s good there is drought or any other form for both of us! of communal difficulty, a number of Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph is Executive ascending restrictions are imposed Vice President/Chief Operating Officer on the community. One of the last of the OU. things taken away is she’eilat shalom, saying hello. This would seem to indicate the critical nature of a simple Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

The IVDU driver’s ed pilot program is taught by the same instructor who oversees the program in mainstream Brooklyn schools. The students will emerge from the course, like their mainstream peers, with the same skills needed to be responsible drivers.

IVDU OFFERS LANDMARK DRIVER’S ED COURSE In November, the Marilyn and Sheldon David IVDU Boys Upper School in Brooklyn became the first special education school in New York to offer eligible students a DMV-approved driver’s education course. The twelve boys enrolled in the pilot class are learning the standardized Empire State driver’s curriculum, slightly modified to accommodate participants’ unique learning styles.

“Any student who can, should be able to get a driver’s license,” Rabbi Michoel Druin, IVDU Head of School, said. “I’m proud that we can offer our students such a critical life skill as they prepare to launch into adulthood.” IVDU, a network of schools for those with mild-tomoderate learning, social and developmental delays, operates under the aegis of Yachad, the OU division for individuals with disabilities in the Jewish community.

BUILDING COMMUNAL BRIDGES In December, Teach NYS, in collaboration with City & State New York, hosted “Building Bridges,” a discussion of top issues for New York’s diverse interfaith community. Held at The Mezzanine in Manhattan’s Financial District, the event featured a variety of notable speakers from the Catholic, Islamic and Jewish communities—including OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer and OU Managing Director Maury Litwack. Panel discussions explored topics including protecting houses of worship from hate crimes and statesponsored funding for faith-based schools. Teach Coalition, a project of the OU, works to make nonpublic schools better, safer and more affordable through advocacy and grassroots activism on behalf of approximately 90 percent of yeshivah and day school students nationwide. From left: OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer; Teach NYS Co-Chair Cal Nathan; Chief Advisor to New York Mayor Eric Adams, Ingrid Lewis-Martin; OU Managing Director and Founder of Teach Coalition Maury Litwack; and New York State Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato at the Building Bridges event. Photo: Rita Thompson

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE OU BIENNIAL CONVENTION OU leadership present OU President, Emeritus Mark (Moishe) Bane with an artistic rendering of Mr. Bane’s primary rebbe, Rav Yaakov Weinberg, at the convention in January. The inscription reads “V’hayu einecha ro’ot et morecha—your guiding leadership has faithfully reflected the vision of your rebbeim.” From left: OU Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Rabbi Dr. Josh Joseph; OU Kosher CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack; OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer; Mr. Bane; and OU President Mitchel R. Aeder. Photo: Ulrich Studios

This past January, OU lay leadership as well as delegates from NCSY and OU synagogues convened at the Young Israel of Woodmere in New York for the OU’s Biennial Convention and Meeting. In addition to electing Mitchel R. Aeder as the next OU President, fourteen new members were elected to the OU Board—including two women National Vice Presidents—representing communities around the country. At the convention, chaired by Elliott Mandelbaum, participants approved

proposed resolutions and policies and heard from OU leadership about their vision for the future of the organization. Speakers were OU President, Emeritus Mark (Moishe) Bane, OU President Mitchel R. Aeder, OU Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer and keynote speaker Rav Yosef Zvi Rimon. To see the complete OU Board listing, visit ou.org/ou-lay-leadership-national-officers/.

Journey Through Tehillim Aiming for a better knowledge of Tehillim among teenagers, the OU Women’s Initiative launched “Tehillim 150,” a 150-day journey through Tehillim for high school girls in February. The program, running in tandem with the Torat Imecha Nach Yomi cycle, is led by student ambassadors at over forty schools nationally, with more than 850 students learning together daily. Participants have access to a daily podcast by Yael Davidowitz focusing on relevant take-home messages. The podcast was dedicated by Miriam and Alan Greenspan in memory of Miriam’s mother, Shifra Friedman, a”h. In addition, each participating student received a copy of the ArtScroll pocket Tehillim, dedicated in honor of Mrs. Nechama Wolfson by her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

PROMOTIONS ACHIEVEMENTS

AND

Welcome to... . . . Tamar Frydman, Director of the Impact Accelerator. Tamar joins the OU with over fifteen years of experience in driving organizational strategy and pioneering new programs in the nonprofit world. She most recently served as Senior Director of Programs at the Jewish Funders Network, and prior to that held management positions at UJA-Federation of New York. Tamar holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Towson University and an MSW from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. . . . Davida Fried, Field Director of Westchester County and Manhattan, Teach Coalition. In this role, Davida is responsible for engaging Jewish parents and

community members to vote and take action on behalf of Jewish students, families and schools. Davida previously worked as the Early Childhood Director for Stein Yeshiva in New York, as well as the Preschool Director for Camp Regesh in New Jersey. She holds a bachelor’s in education from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women and a master’s in education and administration from YU’s Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration.

. . . Rabbi Shmuli Zema, Senior Director of Development, OU-JLIC.

Rabbi Zema served as Assistant Rabbi of The Hampton Synagogue for four years, Rabbinical Educator at Manhattan Jewish Experience, and most recently as Executive Director of Friends of JCT (Machon Lev), a role that combined development, strategy and management. He holds a bachelor’s in psychology from Touro’s Lander College, an MBA in finance and operations research from the Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College), and semichah from Yeshiva University.

. . . Malki Agular, Social Media Manager, OU Marketing and Communications. In this role, Malki will provide training in social media best-practices and oversee the main OU social accounts. She joins the OU with over three years of experience in social media management, most recently as the Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer at an advertising and marketing agency. Malki holds a degree in digital multimedia design from Touro College.

. . . Atara Neuer, National Director of Marketing, OU-JLIC. In her new

position, Atara will employ strategic marketing to build OU-JLIC’s brand awareness, mission and values. At her most recent position as West Side Director of Manhattan Jewish Experience, Atara worked in event management and program development for young Jewish professionals, as well as marketing and community engagement. She holds a bachelor’s from McGill University.

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

PROMOTIONS ACHIEVEMENTS

AND

Congratulations to... . . . Rabbi Ilan Haber on his promotion to OU Chief Strategy Officer.

This organization-wide role focuses on change management, evaluation, planning and alignment, as well as encompassing internal organizational and programmatic assessment. Rabbi Haber brings nearly twenty years of experience at the OU, including eighteen-plus years at the helm of OU-JLIC. His keen strategic expertise positions him well to guide the organization forward as a key manager in the implementation of the OU’s strategic vision. While no longer responsible for day-to-day management of OU-JLIC, Rabbi Haber will retain the title of International Director of OU-JLIC, and will continue to play a key role in its growth and development.

. . . Rabbi Josh Ross on the expansion of his leadership role as the Acting Executive Director, OU-JLIC. Rabbi Ross will bear primary responsibility for

OU-JLIC’s day to day management. He has served as Deputy Director of OU-JLIC for the past thirteen years. Rabbi Ross began his career with OU-JLIC, after many years in Israel, as a Campus Educator at Cornell and then Campus Director at Princeton.

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COMING SOON FROM OU PRESS The Return to Zion: Addresses on Religious Zionism and American Orthodoxy—The Karasick Family Edition By Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik; translated by Shaul Seidler-Feller OU Press and KTAV Publishing

his volume consists of ten addresses delivered between 1939 and 1958 by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, known as “the Rav,” at gatherings convened by the Mizrachi Organization of America and/or Hapoel Hamizrachi of America. In addition, the volume concludes with an epilogue from 1967 containing the Rav’s reflections on the Six-Day War. An introduction by the translator gives the historical context for the addresses. The English publication of these discourses, which were published in the original Yiddish by OU Press in 2021, adds a significant new dimension to our understanding of the Rav and his worldview as it relates to some of the most critical events of the twentieth century. In these discourses, Rav Soloveitchik confronts the great historical events of his time: the destruction of European Jewry, the difficulties and prospects of building a center for Orthodox Judaism in America, and the renewal of Jewish life and sovereignty in the Land of Israel. This volume allows us a glimpse into history from the perspective of one of the great Jewish thinkers of the time. To give one example, in this excerpt from an address given in 1944, while the Holocaust was still taking place, Rav Soloveitchik chose to focus not on the destruction but on the road to rebuilding, and in particular on the role of Orthodox Jewry in that process: We must not fool ourselves; we should not expect any sort of sudden salvation or comfort to come from the nations of the world even after there is peace, once Hitler, may his name be blotted out, and his gang of villains are in Gehenna. We know well the two-faced politics of English governments; our friends in Washington, too, have little understanding of Zionism and of the idea of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. I do not speak here in despairing, pessimistic spirits, Heaven forbid . . . I know that the Master of the Universe will fulfill His covenant, and His prophecies have more power than the [1939 British] White Paper. Still, we must be realistic and not adopt foolish, fantastical hopes. “The honor will eventually come” (Nedarim 62a), but the road to redemption will be long and difficult . . .

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

The ideology of building the land can only be based upon the ideology of the land’s holiness. A Jew who believes in the land’s holiness knows, too, the halakhah that the second sanctification of the land in the days of Ezra was in effect “in its own time and for all time” (Maimonides, Hilkhot Terumot 1:5), and so he cannot despair, for “You, O L-rd, are enthroned forever, Your throne endures through the ages.” Even if many White Papers, filled with antisemitism, seek to shatter the divine throne, they will not prevail. “Hatch a plot—it shall be foiled; agree on action—it shall not succeed. For with us is G-d!” (Isa. 8:10) . . . But the holiness of the land is not a concept that can be abstracted from the full complex of Jewish ideas of sanctity. The holiness of the land is a correlative of the holiness of Israel, the Torah, and the Holy One, Blessed is He. Rav Soloveitchik concluded this address with his vision of the work that lay ahead: In a word: we have to prepare new parchment to receive the letters from the burned Torah scrolls, letters which are already now knocking at our door. This cannot be accomplished at a conference via declarations and resolutions; rather, this is a long process involving difficult labor and organized efforts, day in and day out. There is no royal road to Judaism, just as, to quote Euclid, “There is no royal road to geometry.” It is a difficult path, a long journey, but one that is ultimately short (see Eiruvin 53b). Yisrael Sava [Israel of Old] must be saved and must exist not in ghettos but in a vast, free land. Orthodoxy’s task is to rescue the letters of the Torah scrolls that are now being incinerated together with the Rabbi Chanina ben Teradions. Invoking the prophet Amos (7:14), Rabbi Soloveitchik describes himself as “a cattle breeder and a tender of sycamore figs—not a party chairman, not even a rabbinic leader. Still, sometimes a cattle breeder and a tender of sycamore figs from the rocky Judean hills can see somewhat further and more clearly than the elegant aesthetes of royal Bethel.” This volume is a fascinating window onto a period of catastrophe and rebuilding, as seen through the lens of a visionary observer.

Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Inside

PHILANTHROPY INVESTING IN NCSY— INVESTING IN THE JEWISH FUTURE

Multi-Million Dollar Gifts Aim at Engaging Teens and Creating Dynamic Leaders

“I

’d been to Israel once before, but my trip with NCSY’s TJJ [The Anne Samson Jerusalem Journey] gave me a much greater appreciation of the beauty of the country and my religion,” says Jess Gur, a twelfth grader who attends public school in Toronto. “Before I became part of NCSY, I didn’t know who I was. When I went on TJJ, I became part of NCSY, and I found myself—and, of course, my Judaism.” Getting kids like Gur to go on a transformative Israel summer program is a fundamental mission of RootOne, an initiative that aims to strengthen Jewish identity among North American Jewish teens. So it’s not surprising that RootOne recently awarded NCSY—which brought more than 1,760 teens to Israel this past summer—a multimillion dollar, multi-year grant. “NCSY expertly understands the crucial role that Israel travel plays in the formation and strengthening of Jewish identity and pride among Jewish teens, especially among those teens who are under-engaged in Jewish life,” explains Simon Amiel, Executive Director, RootOne at The

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

Jewish Education Project. “They came to us with a smart and ambitious vision to maximize both the number of teens traveling to Israel each summer as well as the impact those experiences have on the teens themselves. RootOne is thrilled to help make that vision a reality.” The generous grant—the largest NCSY has ever been awarded—will provide vouchers for teens such as Gur to participate in NCSY summer programs in Israel, as well as fund year-round NCSY staff positions focused on Israel education, summer program recruitment and follow-up. Moreover, NCSY and RootOne are in ongoing discussions about how to grow TJJ, NCSY’s flagship summer program that takes public high school students to Israel, by hiring a greater number of Israel educators and by increasing the number of participants. “We bring more teens to Israel for summer experiences than any other organization in the world. Our partners at RootOne are confident that if they want to grow the number of kids who have these valuable experiences, NCSY is the engine to drive that,” says Rabbi Micah Greenland,

Inside PHILANTHROPY

International Director of NCSY. “We are known for being an organization with the ability to impact the Jewish future, and for merging vision with execution at a high level.” NCSY—Uniquely Ambitious and Visionary Seeded by the Atlanta-based Marcus Foundation, RootOne, which began investing in NCSY in 2020, is one of a few major donors who have recently made multi-million-dollar investments in the leading Jewish youth group. In 2021, NCSY was the recipient of a $3 million dollar gift from Becky and Avi Katz of Teaneck, New Jersey, to expand its highly successful JSU (Jewish Student Union) program. Shortly before that, NCSY received a $5 million gift from Felix and Miriam Glaubach of Bal Harbour, Florida, to launch a new, innovative teen leadership initiative. No question, donors are taking note of NCSY’s uniquely ambitious and visionary approach to engaging Jewish teens. “We see big problems facing the Jewish community and we have the hunger and the solutions to address them,” says Rabbi Greenland. “We make no small plans. That is attractive to major donors.” Molding Teen Leaders When Becky and Avi Katz decided to focus their philanthropy on bolstering Jewish identity in public school teens across the nation, they knew who to turn to. “NCSY’s unique breadth and depth in engaging nearly 30,000 participants each year makes it the go-to address for those seeking to impact and inspire Jewish teens,” says Mr. Katz. Recognizing the tremendous untapped potential within NCSY’s JSU platform, the Katzes created The Katz Family Initiative. “Sometimes the challenge is to take a great idea and build it from scratch. Here we saw an opportunity to scale an amazing existing platform,” Mr. Katz says. JSU is NCSY’s extracurricular club for Jewish teens who attend public high schools in the United States and Canada.

In JSU, I am part of a Jewish community. My family has moved several times. In other places I lived, there were strong communities of young Jewish people like me, which is one of the most crucial aspects of my Judaism. But when I got to Miami, I didn’t find that at all. JSU is my community–and it’s made up of Jewish kids my own age, with similar interests, right in my own school. JSU has given me so many connections and Jewish experiences I wouldn’t have had otherwise. — SARA GELRUD, is an eleventh grader in Miami, Florida, and serves on the National Student Executive Board of JSU.

Through the Shevet Glaubach Fellowship, I learned many skills: how to answer questions, and how to listen to and think about questions I didn’t know the answers to. Being able to see the effect I was having on the teens throughout the Fellowship, and the effect that they were having on me, led me to decide that I wanted to pursue Jewish education as a career. I recently got married, and I still have chavrutas every night with teens I connected with through the Shevet Glaubach Fellowship. — ELISHEVA ADOUTH ARYEH was a Shevet Glaubach Fellow from 2020 to 2022. She graduated from Yeshiva University, recently got married to another SGF alum and is pursuing a career in Jewish education.

With more than 300 clubs, JSU reaches some 12,000 teenagers annually, bringing them Jewish life and learning in a fun, relaxed atmosphere. “There’s nothing like JSU in terms of the scope and numbers of teens we reach,” explains Devora Simon, National Director of JSU. “We can scale,” says Rabbi Greenland. “We have staff almost everywhere in the US and Canada, and that means that in virtually every case, we have an existing operation we can scale up. We are virtually never starting from scratch. That is what appeals to major donors.” And because the Katzes wanted to hone in on leadership development for teens and young adults, the couple and NCSY were a perfect match. “Teen leadership is an area in which NCSY excels. While leadership development is not unique to NCSY,” says Rabbi Derek Gormin, Regional Director, West Coast NCSY and Dean of JSU Leadership Institute, “NCSY is incredible at it.” The Katz Family Initiative funds strategies designed to deepen the degree of engagement of JSU participants, including a JSU Presidents’ Conference, which brings teen leaders together for a national conference, and a teen leadership program that provides coaching and mentorship opportunities for club leaders. Sharing a similar vision, Drs. Miriam and Felix Glaubach, originally from Great Neck, New York, aim to cultivate teen leaders in the Jewish world. Their generous gift of $5 million over five years established the Shevet Glaubach Fellowship, which empowers collegeaged NCSY advisors to explore their roles as leaders in the larger Jewish community. “Miriam and I feel that a gift to support NCSY in their work will help educate and train our Jewish youth,” says Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

Dr. Felix Glaubach. “This is the best investment we can make to continue and perpetuate Jewish traditions.” “For funders who are serious about driving Jewish impact, NCSY has become known as the place to invest,” says Rabbi Greenland. “With the generosity of visionary supporters, we dream big and can enact substantive change.” Taking NCSY’s advisor engagement to the next level, the Shevet Glaubach Fellowship has Fellows working in small cohorts and partners them with communities across the United States. The young men and women collaborate within their teams to develop meaningful Jewish programming that acknowledges and addresses the particular needs of each community. Over the past four years, despite the pandemic—and a rigorous application process—the fellowship has grown from an initial group of fifty to the current cohort of 138 young adults. Devoted and Incredible Staff But it’s not just NCSY’s expertise in teen engagement and leadership that attracts donors. The “secret sauce” that keeps the nearly seventy-year-old youth movement fresh and relevant to teens, according to Rabbi Greenland, is the organization’s impressive cadre of staff. “We have a massive platform of professionals across the country, with full-time staff in every major North American city,” he says of his team of 200 employees. “They are highly qualified, well trained and well managed. No other Jewish youth movement has that combination of quantity and quality.”

We are known for being an organization with the ability to impact the Jewish future, and for merging vision with execution at a high level. “Our staff is really well educated Jewishly, almost always coming with fourteen to eighteen years of formal Jewish education behind them, and really understands how to inspire teens,” says Rabbi Greenland. “We hire people who can build authentic relationships that educate and inspire, and then we plug them into a system filled with others who do the same. If a donor wants to make a difference to Jewish teens, these are the kinds of professionals they want to work with,” says Rabbi Greenland. Rabbi Gormin concurs, stressing that a significant strength of NCSY is the connections it fosters. “Relationships are at the heart of everything we do,” he says. “The staff develops real relationships with 98

JEWISH ACTION Spring 5783/2023

Eli Raphael, the current NCSY National President, began his journey with NCSY as a student leader in his Dallas public school. “My original interest in starting a Jewish Student Union (JSU) club in my high school was almost selfish,” he recalls. “Of the few Jewish kids, none had much of a sense of Jewish pride or identity. They were hanging out at the Christian youth group because that’s what their friends were doing. I needed a safety net so that wouldn’t become me too.” Now a high school senior, Raphael served on the Dallas NCSY Chapter Board and spent two summers in Israel on NCSY programs. He participated in JSU National Leadership Conferences and was instrumental in the formation of the first JSU Student Executive Board. After graduation in the spring, he’s planning to head back to Israel to learn in a yeshivah. Raphael is proud to have helped grow and strengthen the community of Jewish teens in the Dallas area through creative programs and largescale chesed projects he helped organize. He credits the guidance and support of the NCSY staff and advisors for encouraging him to follow his passion. “From the beginning, NCSY made it okay to take risks,” he says. “The staff encouraged me to go the extra mile even though it was outside my comfort zone. Now I can see it’s not just about me anymore. I know I’m helping to build something special. The guidance and support and also inspiration I’ve found in NCSY has been instrumental in who I am today,” adds Raphael. “It’s the same for so many teens—and not only the leaders. I’m grateful for the resources NCSY provides teens to live their Judaism, to practice Judaism, and most of all, to love it.”

students—and even their parents—getting to know the teens so we can best help guide them on their Jewish journeys.” It’s the power of these authentic relationships that motivates staff to devote their careers to NCSY, and it’s also what attracts the investments of philanthropists looking to stem the tide of assimilation and to grow Jewish leadership for the future. Above all, it’s what speaks most profoundly to the teens themselves and keeps them coming back. Thanks to the investments of changemakers like RootOne, the Katz family and the Glaubach family—alongside sustaining donors from around the country—thousands of teens like Gur are finding a place for themselves as proud members and leaders of Klal Yisrael.

Members of the OU Benefactor Circle lead through their philanthropy. Each has donated in support of the OU and its many impactful programs in the 2021 or 2022 calendar years.* We applaud them all - those whose names appear as well as those choosing to remain anonymous - for their commitment. We invite you to join them in making a difference. To learn more about the OU Benefactor Circle or to become a member, please call Alexander Jonas, at 212.613.8379 or email jonasa@ou.org. *Donors are recognized based on date of donation payment

AMBASSADOR $1,000,000 + DRS. FELIX AND MIRIAM GLAUBACH BECKY AND AVI KATZ THE MARCUS FOUNDATION INC. IN MEMORY OF ANNE SAMSON A”H

GUARDIAN $100,000 - $999,999 EMANUEL AND HELEN ADLER IN MEMORY OF AHARON BEN YAAKOV SHALOM AND LEAH BAS YITZHAK MARK (MOISHE) AND JOANNE BANE NEIL AND SHERRY COHEN DAHAN FAMILY PHILANTHROPIES ROBERT AND MICHELLE DIENER GERSHON AND AVIVA DISTENFELD MITCHELL AND ANNETTE EICHEN EISENREICH FAMILY FOUNDATION MR. AND MRS. JACK FEINTUCH

FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS, GREATER PHILADELPHIA ELLIOT P. AND DEBORAH GIBBER ALAN AND BARBARA GINDI DAILYGIVING.ORG THE GUSTAVE AND CAROL JACOBS CENTER FOR KASHRUT EDUCATION MORDECAI Z”L AND MONIQUE KATZ DR. SHMUEL AND EVELYN KATZ THE KOHELET FOUNDATION THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES THE JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO DAVID AND DEBRA MAGERMAN MAYBERG FOUNDATION EITAN AND DEBRA MILGRAM MOSAIC UNITED OLAMI LAUNCH AARON AND AHUVA ORLOFSKY RALLA KLEPAK FOUNDATION FOR EDUCATION IN THE PERFORMING ARTS MARK AND BARBARA SILBER MORIS AND LILLIAN TABACINIC UJA-FEDERATION OF NEW YORK

FOUNDER $50,000 - $99,999 AARON AND MARIE BLACKMAN FOUNDATION LEWIS AND LAURI BARBANEL DANIEL AND RAZIE BENEDICT HILLEL AND CHARLOTTE A”H BRACHFELD THE CAYRE FAMILY CHICAGO CHESED FUND COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES CRAIN-MALING FOUNDATION: WWW.CRAINMALING.ORG CROSS RIVER BANK GRANT AND JENNIFER DINNER ROBERT EISENBERG YISROEL EPSTEIN GEORGE AND MARTHA RICH FOUNDATION MENASHE AND JAMIE FRANK EZRA AND RACHELI FRIEDBERG AMIR AND STACEY GOLDMAN DR. EPHRAIM AND RITA GREENFIELD PHILIP AND AVIVA GREENLAND MOSHE AND TIRA GUBIN DR. ELLIOT Z”L AND LILLIAN HAHN KLEIN, JAFFA, AND HALPERN FAMILIES THE HIDDEN SPARKS FUND DR. ALLAN AND SANDY JACOB JEWISH FEDERATION OF NORTHERN

NEW JERSEY JEWISH FUTURE PLEDGE HOWARD AND DEBBIE JONAS NATALIE AND DAVIDI JONAS AARON AND TOBI KELLER DR. EZRA AND LAUREN KEST LAIZER AND JESSICA KORNWASSER MICHAEL AND ANDREA LEVEN CHUCK AND ALLEGRA MAMIYE AZI AND RACHEL MANDEL EZRA AND LAUREN MERKIN RAPHAEL AND RIVKA NISSEL DRS. JAY AND SUSAN PEPOSE JONATHAN AND ANNE RAND ERIC AND GALE A”H ROTHNER RABBI ZECHARIA AND CHANA SENTER MICHAEL SHABSELS THE SHAMAH FAMILY DANIEL AND ELLIE STONE GARY AND MALKA TORGOW JEFFREY AND SHARONA WEINBERG MICHAEL AND ARIANNE WEINBERGER DAVID AND GILA WEINSTEIN THE WEISS FAMILY, CLEVELAND, OHIO MR. JERRY AND MRS. SARA WOLASKY MEREDITH AND KENNY YAGER

BUILDER $25,000 - $49,999 RAANAN AND NICOLE AGUS LIOR AND DRORA ARUSSY SUE AND BILL AUERBACH DAVID AND NATALIE BATALION SABY AND ROSI A”H BEHAR BRIAN AND DAFNA BERMAN JUDI AND JASON BERMAN THE CHARLES CRANE FAMILY FOUNDATION VIVIAN AND DANIEL CHILL THE CONDUIT FOUNDATION CONTRA COSTA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER SHIMON AND CHAYA ECKSTEIN JEFFREY AND SHIRA EISENBERG ARIELA AND BENITO ESQUENAZI IN HONOR OF THE MENDEL BALK YACHAD COMMUNITY CENTER GERALD AND MIRIAM FRIEDKIN BENTZION FRIEDMAN HOWARD TZVI AND CHAYA FRIEDMAN THE GEORGE WEINBERGER MUSIC PROGRAM RAYMOND AND ELIZABETH GINDI ARTHUR AND JUDITH GOLDBERG JERRY AND ANNE GONTOWNIK AARON AND MICHAL GORIN HARVEY GREENSTEIN ROBYN AND SHUKIE GROSSMAN ESTATE OF ALLEN HABELSON JAMES AND AMY A”H HABER JACK HADDAD MARC AND RUKI HALPERT ROBERT AND DEBRA HARTMAN J. SAMUEL HARWIT AND MANYA HARWIT-AVIV CHARITABLE TRUST THE HELEN AND IRVING SPATZ FOUNDATION LANCE AND RIVKIE HIRT ED AND ROBYN HOFFMAN/HOFFMAN CATERING DAVID AND LORRAINE HOPPENSTEIN CHARITABLE FUND OF THE DALLAS JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION

ALISSA AND SHIMMIE HORN IRA WALDBAUM FAMILY FOUNDATION MICHAEL AND BATYA JACOB PAUL AND CHAVI JACOBS JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER ATLANTA JEWISH FEDERATION OF S. PALM BEACH COUNTY MICHAEL AND JUDY KAISER BENYAMIN AND ESTI KAMINETZKY MICHAEL AND ELISSA KATZ LAWRENCE AND EVELYN KRAUT ALBERT LABOZ ESTATE OF PHILLIP LEONIAN HOWARD AND ELAYNE LEVKOWITZ SHLOMO AND RACHELI LOBELL DANIEL AND ELANA LOWY M.B. GLASSMAN FOUNDATION LYNN AND JOEL MAEL IRIS AND SHALOM MAIDENBAUM DR. RALPH AND JUDITH MARCUS MRS. FEGI MAUER YEHUDA AND ANNE NEUBERGER THE OVED FAMILY ALLEN AND MIRIAM PFEIFFER IAN AND CAROL RATNER ALEXANDER AND RACHEL RINDNER HENRY AND VIVIAN ROSENBERG KAREN AND SHAWN ROSENTHAL JAMES AND LOREN ROSENZWEIG SAMIS FOUNDATION DR. JOSEF SCHENKER MENACHEM AND RENA SCHNAIDMAN NATHAN AND LOUISE SCHWARTZ TZEDAKA FUND YAAKOV AND SARI SHEINFELD BONNY SILVER AND FAMILY THE STAENBERG FAMILY FOUNDATION AVI AND DEENA STEIN JEREMY AND MERYL STRAUSS ADAM AND TALI TANTLEFF ALAN A”H AND INA TAFFET TRAVEL INSURANCE ISRAEL MARC AND MINDY UTAY JOYCE AND JEREMY WERTHEIMER HOWARD AND BATIA WIESENFELD ESTHER AND JERRY WILLIAMS DRS. YECHIEL AND SURI ZAGELBAUM DAVID AND BECKY ZWILLINGER

VISIONARY $18,000 - $24,999 DANIEL AND LIORA ADLER ART HARRIS FOUNDATION ISAAC ASH EZRA AND ISAAC ASHKENAZI DR. MOSHE AND BRYNDIE BENARROCH DENNIS AND DEBRA BERMAN ANDREA BIER JULIE AND PAUL CANDAU DRS. BENJAMIN AND ESTHER CHOUAKE HAIM AND BARBARA DABAH STEPHEN AND SUE DARRISON PETER AND LORI DEUTSCH ALAN AND RACHEL ENGEL EMT ACTION FUND BARI AND DANIEL ERBER MARTIN AND LEORA FINEBERG JOSH GOLDBERG EVE GORDON-RAMEK RABBI MICAH AND RIVKIE GREENLAND

DAVID AND CHAYA TOVA HARTMAN THE HERBERT SMILOWITZ FOUNDATION JAMES AND CAROL HERSCOT RICHARD HIRSCH ORIN AND ESTHER HIRSCHMAN JOAN AND PETER HOFFMAN CHAIM AND SURI KAHN DANIEL J. AND CAROLINE R. KATZ DANA AND JEFFREY KORBMAN MARC AND RENA KWESTEL MEYER AND SHEILA LAST JONATHAN AND SHARI LAUER VIVIAN AND DAVID LUCHINS MICHAEL AND ALIZA MERMELSTEIN DANIEL AND ELANA MILLER DANIEL AND JESSICA MINKOFF IRA AND DR. RIVA COLLINS MITZNER MARTIN AND ELIZABETH NACHIMSON AVI AND DEBRA NAIDER CAL AND JANINE NATHAN ISABELLE AND DAVID NOVAK MARC PENN DAVID AND ELANA POLLACK YECHIEL AND NOMI ROTBLAT LISA AND JONATHAN SCHECHTER SHANA GLASSMAN FOUNDATION MEYER AND BAILA SILVERBERG EDDIE SITT BARRY AND JOY SKLAR KALMAN AND CHAYA TABAK LIZZY AND JOSH TRUMP KIRILL AND MARY VOROBEYCHIK SAMUEL AND TAMI WALD RABBI STEVEN AND YAEL WEIL GEORGE AND JONI WHITE ALAN AND DENISE WILDES RABBI SHABSAI AND DEBBIE WOLFE ATTA AND HENRY ZIELENIEC

PARTNER $10,000 - $17,999 ISABELLE COHEN-ADLER STEVEN AND RENEE ADELSBERG AEG CONTRACTING, INC. PATRICK AND LEAH AMAR HYMAN A”H AND ANN ARBESFELD ERIC AND JOYCE AUSTEIN RACHEL AND AVRUMI BAK BALANOFF FOUNDATION YALE AND ANN BARON SAMUEL AND DEBORAH BERAN MRS. ROCHEL LEAH BERNSTEIN MAX AND ELANA BERLIN RABBI JULIUS AND DOROTHY BERMAN SION AND LORRAINE BETESH YEHUDA AND FAIGE BIENSTOCK TOMER AND JENNIFER BITTON HARVEY AND JUDY BLITZ IAN AND SARAH BOCZKO MR. LUDWIG BRAVMANN DAVID AND CHEDVA BREAU KEVIN BRENNAN KEITH AND LAUREN BRESLAUER & FAMILY THE BROOKLINE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION JOSHUA AND AMY BUCHSBAYEW VANESSA AND RAYMOND CHALME ARI AND ERIKA COHEN CAROL AND JEFF COHEN TZIPPY AND DANIEL COHEN ELI AND CHASI DAVIS

JOHN DAVISON FRED AND SUZAN EHRMAN YECHIEL AND NECHIE EISENSTADT ELKON FAMILY FOUNDATION DAVID AND DEVORA ELKOUBY LINDA AND MICHAEL ELMAN DR. RINA AND NAHUM FELMAN RON AND LISA ROSENBAUM FISHER NATALIO AND ANNE FRIDMAN PAUL AND DIANE GALLANT ANDRES AND KARINA GELRUD ISAAC GINDI BRIAN AND GILA GLUCK YOEL AND YEHUDIT GOLDBERG JOSEPH AND LAURA GOLDMAN YONATAN AND BELLENE GONTOWNIK RABBI DANIEL AND JUDITH GOODMAN GREATER MIAMI JEWISH FEDERATION DR. ALAN AND MIRIAM GREENSPAN ARI AND ALISON GROSS DR. DANIEL AND TSIPORA GURELL ABE AND RONIT GUTNICKI ELAN AND MONICA GUTTMAN DR. BARRY AND SHIRA HAHN SALOMON HARARI THE HARARY FAMILY HARRY AND JANE FISCHEL FOUNDATION RABBI MOSHE AND MINDI HAUER STEVEN HELLER YISROEL AND SHIRA HOCHBERG HOWARD HOFFMAN AND SONS FOUNDATION ISAAC H. TAYLOR ENDOWMENT FUND RABBI MOSHE AND DEVORA ISENBERG THE JACOBY FAMILY JEWISH COMMUNITY FEDERATION OF RICHMOND JEWISH FEDERATION IN THE HEART OF NEW JERSEY JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER HOUSTON DR. JULIE AND RABBI DR. JOSH JOSEPH THE JOSEPH FAMILY FOUNDATION RUTHY AND AARON JUNGREIS DAVID AND MICHAL KAHAN DR. BERNARD AND MELANIE KAMINETSKY JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER KANSAS CITY MORRIS AND SONDRA KAPLAN RABBI MARK AND LINDA KARASICK JACK ALBERT KASSIN SAMUEL AND VICKI KATZ YITZY AND GILA KATZ JOSEPH AND ESTHER KAZARNOVSKY ETTA BRANDMAN KLARISTENFELD AND HARRY KLARISTENFELD KARMELA A”H AND JERRY KLASNER ROBIN AND BRAD KLATT MICHAEL AND JULIE KLEIN NANCY I. KLEIN JONATHAN AND MINDY KOLATCH AVI AND RAVITAL KORN SCOTT AND AVIVA KRIEGER JOSH AND DANIELLA KUHL ALAIN KUPPERMANN KIM AND JONATHAN KUSHNER DANIEL AND AMANDA NUSSBAUM LAIFER PHILIP AND JENNIFER LANDAU SHLOIMY AND YITA LAZAR MARSHALL AND DOREEN LERNER RICHARD AND LEORA LINHART DR. LOUIS AND CHANIE MALCMACHER ELLIOTT AND CHAVI MANDELBAUM

YIGAL AND CARYN MARCUS SHIMON MARGOLINE MOSES AND MARGA MARX SHMUEL MELAMED STEPHEN AND EVE MILSTEIN NOAH AND SUZANNE MISHKIN ALEXANDER AND YOCHEVED MITCHELL SAMUEL AND DEBBIE MOED ELLIOT AND AVA MOSKOWITZ DR. ZEV AND SUSAN MUNK ELIZABETH AND MICHAEL MUSCHEL SHARONA AND IRWIN NACHIMSON GABRIEL AND BETH NECHAMKIN NORMAN SHULEVITZ FOUNDATION RONIE AND JULIE OVADIA ALIZA AND MICHAEL PILEVSKY MICHAEL PINEWSKI ISRAEL AND NECHAMA POLAK MOSHE AND YAFFA POPACK DANIEL AND LEYLA POSNER DRS. NATHAN AND RACHEL RABINOVITCH RALPH S. GINDI FAMILY FOUNDATION DR. AZRIEL AND ILANA RAUZMAN BARRY AND HARRIET RAY LAWRENCE REIN MALKI AND J. PHILIP ROSEN YOSSI AND SIMI ROSENGARTEN DAVID AND DIANA SAFIER STEPHEN AND JESSICA SAMUEL GEORGE AND IRINA SCHAEFFER ROBERT AND TAMAR SCHARF JAY AND JEANIE SCHOTTENSTEIN DANIEL AND DEBBIE SCHWARTZ DANIEL AND RENA SCHWARTZ DAVID AND STEPHANIE SCHWARTZ HESHE AND HARRIET SEIF ANDREW AND STEPHANI SEROTTA DAVID SHABSELS JOSEPH SHAMIE SHARON SHAPIRO SHULCHAN RIVKA FUND HELEN AND GERALD SILVER JEREMY AND DAHLIA SIMONS STEPHANIE AND DAVID SOKOL DR. AND MRS. ETHAN SPIEGLER LEWIS AND HELENE STAHL JONATHAN AND ANAT STEIN MARVIN AND DEBRA STERNBERG SAMUEL AND MALKA SUSSWEIN ELLIOT AND LAURIE SUTTON SAM AND NANCY SUTTON MARILYN RABHAN SWEDARSKY AND DR. ROBERT SWEDARSKY MORRIS AND RACHEL TABUSH DR. AND MRS. SHIMMY TENNENBAUM TAL TOURS DANIEL AND ZAHAVAH URETSKY STEPHEN AND MIRIAM WALLACH DANIEL AND SARA WALZMAN THE JOSEPH LEROY AND ANN C. WARNER FUND AARON MOISHE AND RIVKA WEBER BARBARA AND HOWARD WEINER THE WEININGER FOUNDATION INC. ADAM AND JODI WEINSTEIN ARI AND CAROLINE WEISMAN ADAM AND AVA WEISSTUCH DAVID WITTENBERG SHIMON AND HENNIE WOLF MORRIS AND ARIELLE WOLFSON ALAN AND LORI ZEKELMAN EREZ ZEVULUNOV URI AND EFFIE ZISBLATT YAIR AND DINA ZUCKERMAN

PATRON $5,000 - $9,999 LEON AND SOFIA ACHAR CRAIG AND YAEL ACKERMANN ADM/ROI

DR. LISA AIKEN MICHAEL AINGORN RABBI SHLOMO AND MIRIAM APPEL ARIEL TOURS, INC. JACK AND REGINE ASHKENAZIE DAVID AZAR MARTIN AND MAYANN BAUMRIND SHAEL AND JOAN BELLOWS DR. AND MRS. YITZHAK AND ELLEN BERGER BETZALEL BERKMAN BENJAMIN AND ELIZABETH BERMAN JOEL AND DINA BESS CAROL LASEK AND HOWARD BIENENFELD ELI BLACK STEVEN AND DANIELE BLEIER YEHUDA AND RONI BLINDER BEN AND TAMAR BLUMENTHAL MARCUS Z”L AND DORIS BLUMKIN KENNY BODENSTEIN ENID AND HAROLD H. BOXER ENDOWMENT DAVID AND RENEE BRAHA JOEL AND LIZ BRAUSER LEE AND ALIZA BRAVERMAN MICHAEL AND ALLISON BROMBERG YISHAI AND BLUMA BRONER CENTER FOR JEWISH PHILANTHROPY OF GREATER PHOENIX DANIEL AND DEVORAH CHEFITZ ADAM AND ILANA CHILL GOBBIE AND SHAYNA COHN ETHAN AND AMY COREY RICK AND MARCY CORNFELD DAVID AND MARILYN CUTLER DAVID AND INEZ MYERS FOUNDATION DR. CARYN BORGER AND MARK DUNEC GARY AND KAREN EISENBERG JEFFREY AND JENNIFER EISENSTEIN RINA AND RABBI DOV EMERSON BINAH AND DANNY ENGLANDER BERNARD FARBER PAUL AND LORRAINE FEIN GLORIA FELDMAN RABBI JOSEPH AND SARAH FELSEN ARYEH AND DORIT FISCHER DR. BEN AND CARA FREEDMAN ALLEN AND RACHEL FRIEDMAN MARK AND CHERYL FRIEDMAN NEIL AND ILANA FRIEDMAN AKIVA AND MIMI FRIEND DR. STAN AND MARLA FROHLINGER JOEY GABAY JASON AND JOCELYNE GARDNER MICHAEL AND ZIPPORAH GASNER ARNOLD AND ESTHER GERSON SHAI AND TOVA GERSON DAVID AND RACHEL GERSTLEY RISA AND ZEV GEWURZ RYAN AND NICOLE GALIA GILBERT STEVEN AND DEBRA GLANZ ARI AND ABIGAIL GLASS LENNY AND ESTELLE GLASS RUBEN AND SARITA GOBER MR. AND MRS. ERNIE GOLDBERGER EVAN AND REBECCA GOLDENBERG ZVI GOLDMAN ARI AND SHIRA GONTOWNIK DR. SUSAN GRAYSEN AND FAMILY JONATHAN GREEN DAVID AND SHIRA GREENBERG FREDA GREENBAUM DR. EDWIN AND CECILE GROMIS DR. STEVEN AND LISA GRONOWITZ ARYEH AND GOLDIE GROSS MERIDIAN CAPITAL GROUP ARIEL AND ALETA GRUNBERG DR. ELI AND SORA GRUNSTEIN MICHAEL HADDAD JOSH AND MARJORIE HARRIS HC STAFFING AND PAYROLL SOLUTIONS CHAIM AND ARIELLA HERMAN CHANI AND DANIEL HERRMANN

DOV AND LAURA HERTZ DR. GARY AND CHERYL HOBERMAN CATHY AND DAVID HOFFMAN NORMA HOLZER DOV AND SARAH HOROWITZ SHLOMO AND DORIE HORWITZ DR. SHALOM AND LORI HUBERFELD DR. DAVID AND BARBARA HURWITZ DANIEL JACOB MOTTY AND HADASSA JACOBOWITZ STANLEY AND PHYLLIS JASPAN ALAN AND LISA JEMAL MORRIS AND SUSAN KALICHMAN LEORA KAMINER STUART KARON AND DR. JODI WENGER AARON AND JILL KATZ RABBI ETHAN AND DEBORAH KATZ BENJAMIN KELLOGG DOV AND AMY KESSELMAN AVIGDOR KESSLER STEVEN KIMMELMAN MARTIN AND SARAH KORNBLUM HARRY KOTLER JOSH KRAFT RACHEL KRAUT ARMAND AND ESTHER LASKY PINCHUS AND DEBORAH SCHICK LAUFER ARYEH AND ELANA LEBOWITZ IN MEMORY OF JUDY LEFKOVITS JOSHUA AND ERICA LEGUM ERAN AND ORIT LEIB MARK AND ETA LEVENSON ADAM LEWIS SHULLY LICHTMAN GERALD AND EILEEN LIEBERMAN HYLTON AND LEAH LIGHTMAN SAM AND RITA LIPSHITZ MORDECHAI AND PENINA LIPTON MAURY AND ELINOR LITWACK MICHAEL AND LESLIE LITWACK CHAIM AND BARA LOEWENTHAL EDWARD LOWY JEREMY AND TAMAR LUSTMAN EVAN AND EVI MAKOVSKY ADRIA AND JEFFREY MANDEL DAVID MANDEL DR. DAVID AND STACI MARGULIS SHARI AND YAAKOV MARKOVITZ TZACHI AND ELISHEVA MEISEL BENAY AND IRA MEISELS RONEET MERKIN ADAM AND FRANCINE MERMELSTEIN LEONARD AND BEVERLY MEZEI YALE AND GAIL MILLER STEVE AND MALKA MIRETZKY ETAN AND VALERIE MIRWIS AND FAMILY DR. DANIEL AND STEPHANIE MISHKIN MARSHALL AND JEAN MIZRAHI HARRY AND ROBIN MORTKOWITZ MICHAEL AND MICHELLE NACHMANI DANIEL AND ANNE NAGEL RABBI YAAKOV AND SARA NAGEL JONATHAN AND MINDY NEISS ELI AND TALIA NEUBERG ZACHARY NEUGUT STEVEN AND MARTINE NEWMAN JAY AND PAULA NOVETSKY TERRY AND GAIL NOVETSKY TZVI AND ALEXANDRA ODZER SCOTT AND RONIT ORLANSKI HENRY AND MINDY ORLINSKY LESLIE AND JOSH OSTRIN AND FAMILY PROF. MARTIN PATT DENA AND SETH PILEVSKY ISAAC AND BONNIE POLLAK MORDECHAI AND ALIZA POLSTEIN MR. AND MRS. DAVID PORUSH GAIL PROPP RICHARD AND ORA RABINOVICH DR. STEVEN AND BELINDA RAIKIN GEORGIA RAVITZ REGALS FOUNDATION YARON AND LISA REICH

DRS. CRAIG AND JACKIE REISS JASON AND SHANI REITBERGER GAIL AND BINYAMIN RIEDER RALPH AND LEAH RIEDER DR. JAY AND MARJORIE ROBINOW ARNOLD AND FRANCINE ROCHWARGER YITZHOK AND TAMAR ROSENTHAL MARC AND ALISSA ROSSMAN ROBBIE AND HELENE ROTHENBERG HENRY AND GOLDA REENA ROTHMAN RABBI DANIEL AND ELISHEVA RUBENSTEIN IDELLE RUDMAN ZVI AND SHARONNE RUDMAN LARRY AND SHELLY RUSSAK MILTON AND SHIRLEY SABIN KENNETH AND MINDY SAIBEL MARVIN AND ROZ SAMUELS SAPPHIRE WEALTH ADVISORY GROUP GENIE AND STEVE SAVITSKY TOBY MACY SCHAFFER ROBERT AND ANDREA SCHECHTER RONNIE AND SANDRA SCHIFF SHLOMO AND GITTY SCHWARTZ TIBERIO AND ELLYSE SCHWARTZ SCOTT AND JAMIE SELIGSOHN ALEXANDER SELIGSON ARI AND SHOSHANA SHABAT RALPH AND SARAH SHAMAH LOUIS SHAMIE HOWARD AND ALISSA SHAMS BENJAMIN AND MOR SHAPIRO JAYNE SHAPIRO MICHAEL AND TALI SHAPIRO SHEFA BRACHA FUND TAMAR AND AARON SHEFFEY NEIL SHORE TUVIA AND MIRIAM SILVERSTEIN TZVI SIMPSON IRIS SMITH KERRI AND JEFFREY SNOW FAMILY FOUNDATION BARRY AND JODIE SOBEL GABRIEL AND SARA SOLOMON JONATHAN AND DODI SPIELMAN RUTH BRANDT SPITZER GARY AND NAOMI STEIN MICHAEL STEINGER STEINIG FAMILY: ESTATE OF MELVIN AND MIRELE STEINIG A”H GREGORY AND LISA STORCH RACHELLE AND ZEV STERN AARON AND ARIELLA STRASSMAN TED AND LINDA STRUHL ABRAHAM SULTAN JOSH SULTAN MICHAEL SWIECA TAMPA JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTERS AND FEDERATION TELL CONSTRUCTION AND PROJECTS, LLC JONATHAN AND RACHEL TIGER SAM AND TZIPI TRAMIEL SHLOMO AND RONNI TROODLER EPHRAIM AND AVIVA VILENSKI ADINA WAGMAN IN MEMORY OF DOVID BEN REB YOSEF WEINBERG A”H TOVA AND HOWARD WEISER AMNON AND RONIT WENGER DAVID AND NATALIE WOLF ARIEL AND BETH ZELL MARK AND JESSICA ZITTER SETH ZWILLENBERG

List updated as of January 1, 2023 We apologize for any omissions. If you wish to be acknowledged, please contact Alexander Jonas at jonasa@ou.org

BOOKS

Kan Tzipor: Inspiring Stories on Seizing “Magic Moments” of Opportunity to Do Chessed

The book’s tacit message: you don’t have to be a big macher to do big things.

By Stephen J. Savitsky Feldheim Publishers New York, 2022 239 pages

Reviewed by Steve Lipman

n traditional Jewish thought, the mitzvah of sending away a mother bird from her nest before removing an egg or a chick that she was guarding—seemingly a minor matter—is considered particularly significant. Kan tzipor (usually called shiluach haken, sending of the nest) is described as one of the two Biblical commandments—along

Steve Lipman is an avid reader and a frequent contributor to Jewish Action.

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with honoring one’s parents—that will bring long life to the person who performs it for showing sensitivity to the feelings of a mere animal. Stephen Savitsky is a veteran lay leader of the Orthodox community. He is a former OU president (2004–2011); a former OU Board chairman; on the board of directors of Partners in Torah; has served in roles in several other Jewish organizations; and has founded several innovative communal initiatives. To him, the mitzvah of kan tzipor, which he assigned as the title of his collection of chesed stories, epitomizes a unique aspect of a Jew’s responsibility. Unlike most other mitzvot, “there is absolutely no preparation necessary before fulfilling this commandment,” he writes in his introduction, citing the Torah’s wording, “Should a bird’s nest appear before you” (Devarim 22:6). “You have to ‘chance upon’ this mitzvah; it must suddenly appear before you with none of the prior planning or preparation necessary for other mitzvos, such as observing Pesach, building a succah, or even laying tefillin,” Savitsky writes. “Rather, it’s a mitzvah that is totally unexpected.” For a Jew, it is a carpe diem opportunity. Intrigued by the mitzvah, Savitsky

“always came away feeling there must be more . . . than I was understanding, a deeper, more profound lesson.” That lesson is: “kan tzipor moments.” Sudden chances to help people—when you observe their need. Savitsky has shared this lesson so often at his frequent public speeches that he has earned the title “Mr. Kan Tzipor.” People often share their personal kan tzipor stories with him. These constitute his book. “What they all have in common,” he writes, “is that when [they] heard G-d calling out to them . . . they heeded that call.” Books that contain inspirational chesed stories could fill several shelves in a library; but Savitsky’s has a chiddush. He’s collected a certain type of story—ones that meet his kan tzipor criteria, of men and women taking bold action with no advance notice. Savitsky tells of stories that have happened to him, to friends, and to strangers. He tells of the time he and Gregg Petit, a non-Jewish financial public relations expert, leaving on a flight from LaGuardia Airport one morning, encountered a distraught young woman; she was going to be married in a church that weekend and had just

discovered that there was no room on their flight for the large bag that contained her wedding gown. He tells, too, of a woman who experienced antisemitism at work; of a ba’al teshuvah whose onetime yeshivah friend was about to marry outside the faith; of a college student from Argentina; of a Jewish cab driver in Israel and a non-Jewish cab driver in Manhattan, and more. He also tells of a cabinet member and a president, of a prince and a philanthropist, but they are not his focus. Rather, it is “ordinary” people acting extraordinarily when given the chance. The book’s tacit message: you don’t have to be a big macher to do big things. “One of the criteria of a kan tzipor moment,” Savitsky writes, “is that it must be an opportunity that lasts for one swift moment, which, if you don’t grab that moment, will be lost forever.” Such as Mary McGuire, the forlorn bride-to-be at LaGuardia Airport. Savitsky, his kippah plainly visible, and his colleague convinced a gate agent and the flight crew to persuade three people seated in the plane’s first row to exchange their seats for Savitsky’s, his co-worker’s and Mary’s, who were allowed to lay the bag with the gown across their laps, buckled in, for the short flight. The trio boarded last, to an ovation from the other passengers, who had heard about the drama taking place. And the pilot went on the intercom and thanked “Rabbi Petit and Rabbi Savitsky for their wonderful act of kindness.” “I had just gotten semichah from United Airlines,” Savitsky writes, “something I don’t think any other Jew can claim.” The gown arrived in Columbus in perfect shape. Several deplaning passengers, some “who were not at all visibly Jewish,” congratulated Savitsky and Petit on the kiddush Hashem they had made. Mary, of course, was very grateful. On the car ride to his morning’s appointment, Savitsky called his wife. “Genie,” he said, “I had the greatest day today.” “How can that be, Steve?” she asked. “Your meeting hasn’t even started yet.” “I know!” Savitsky told her. “But this morning I was blessed with a kan tzipor moment!”

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The Revelation at Sinai: What Does “Torah from Heaven” Mean?

Edited by Yoram Hazony, Gil Student, and Alex Sztuden Ktav Publishing New York, 2021 357 pages

Reviewed by Rabbi Steven Gotlib

raditional Jewish beliefs have been subject to constant academic challenges in the modern era, and yet we continue to believe. While most people retain their faith by ignoring or summarily dismissing these challenges, some scholars have responded directly by using those same academic methods in defense of traditional beliefs. Commenting on this phenomenon in an article for the Canadian Jewish News, Rabbi Daniel Korobkin wrote that “works by Orthodox authors that tackle difficult theological issues, ask tough questions, and reconcile differences between Orthodoxy and modern scholarship . . . are often a kiddush Hashem because 104

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they demonstrate how Orthodoxy and scholarship are compatible.”1 When scholars adopt the tools and findings of modern scholarship while remaining steadfastly faithful to traditional Jewish beliefs, they show the resilience of Torah even in hostile waters. The Revelation at Sinai is one of the newest contributions to this important project. The volume features a cross-disciplinary collection of Orthodox scholars, each offering unique insights into the idea of “Torah from Heaven” in an age in which academics generally believe that the Torah does not represent Hashem’s words in any literal sense. Faced with this opposition, how can such a concept survive and continue to inspire Jews today? The Revelation at Sinai tackles this challenge head-on from several vantage points. The first section of the book focuses on philosophical, theological and literary accounts of the Torah’s presentation(s) of revelation. In the words of Yoram Hazony, “the presence of Mount Sinai teaches that there exists a best point of vantage from which man can achieve a commanding view of G-d’s true nature,” while Moshe Rabbeinu represents the fact that “at least one individual did approach and attain this point of vantage, bringing a teaching down to Israel and to the nations that has never been surpassed.” Likewise, Dr. Shira Weiss writes that Moshe’s only being able to witness Hashem from behind “allows humans to obtain a glimpse of divine acts to emulate, without achieving a comprehensive image of G-d” so that Hashem can “guide His subjects in their fulfillment of imitatio dei while preserving the unknowability of the transcendent.” We see from this that Biblical accounts of revelation teach

a deep philosophical and theological account of Divine communication with humanity. But historical accuracy is also important to consider, and section two of The Revelation at Sinai does so directly. Professor Shawn Zelig Aster asks, “where did the Israelites get the idea that G-d was king who owned the land, that they ought to establish an egalitarian social fabric, and that they ought to remain separate from the Egyptians and the Canaanites” when no other Ancient Near Eastern groups espoused such ideas? While one cannot prove that such novelties originated in a revelation to the Jewish people, Aster argues that this assumption provides the simplest answer to how such ideas became so central to their society. Likewise, Dr. Jeremiah Unterman capably furthers the long-established argument that the Torah presents an ethical ethos centered around “a good, just, caring G-d who created the world and humankind, and chose to reveal His will to the people of Israel and their prophets,” ideas unheard of in the surrounding environment. Such deviations from the norms of the age, he argues, are best explained by revelation. Briefly returning to the volume’s opening chapter, a concern is raised that is felt throughout the book: a small, yet increasingly influential, group of scholars and theologians suggests that the Written Torah is the result of human development over time, rather than a literal, or at least objectively witnessed, Divine revelation. Such Rabbi Steven Gotlib is a kollel fellow at Beit Midrash Zichron Dov and assistant rabbi at the Village Shul & Aish HaTorah Learning Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

views—generally referred to under the heading of “ongoing revelation” —require no Moshe, no Mount Sinai, no revelation, no unique Jewish experience, and not even Hashem. Yet its proponents claim this to be an authentically Jewish view. While most of The Revelation at Sinai subtly responds to such positions, the fourth section addresses them directly. Rabbi Gil Student emphasizes the fact that full acceptance of Biblical criticism, including the idea of “ongoing revelation” as applied to the text of the Torah, undermines the entire Jewish project “even if its proponents attend synagogue three times a day” (302). Rabbi Student (disclosure: He serves as Jewish Action’s book editor) responds to this challenge by surveying three thinkers who were known for wrestling with critical scholarship in their own unique ways: Louis Jacobs, Abraham Joshua Heschel, and Menachem Kasher. Rabbi Student summarizes Jacobs as breaking from traditional approaches entirely in favor of academic conclusions, Heschel as attempting to expand and revise tradition to allow for acceptance of some (but not all) critical assumptions, and Kasher as traditionally arguing that Hashem dictated the final text of the Torah regardless of who may have originally composed the specific stories that were eventually Divinely dictated. All three are united in rejecting the notion of ongoing revelation discussed above. Rabbi Student, however, still rejects each of those arguments because they fail at moving the poles of ancient tradition and contemporary scholarship closer together in a productive way. Rabbi Student’s preference is, rather, for a Maimonidean framework in which arguments are evaluated based on plausibility, provability and revelation. Arguments that are objectively proven demand Biblical reinterpretation in response. On the other hand, arguments that are merely plausible should be taken seriously but need not cause crises of faith. When an argument is unproven, even if plausible, it is perfectly rational to side with revelation

over speculation.2 This approach allows one to separate the metaphorical fruit from the peel of academic Biblical criticism. Studying the Torah in its historical context while paying attention to the literary devices and textual patterns employed throughout can be valuable and enlightening even while still rejecting Biblical criticism’s claims about the text’s origins. Indeed, Rabbi Student writes that “biblical criticism as a whole can help Jewish theologians formulate their own claims in response” (305). Alex Sztuden demonstrates that last point in The Revelation at Sinai’s final chapter, which is largely a response to the (Conservative) Jewish Theological Seminary’s Dr. Benjamin Sommer. Sommer denies that the text of the Torah is from Heaven, but still advocates observance of halachah. Sztuden’s response is a simple one: The Torah’s Divinity lies not in its wisdom as an interpretation of humanity’s encounter with the Ineffable, but as the record of how the Jewish people actually encountered Hashem. Halachah, stemming from Hashem’s words as recorded in the Torah, “is the constitutive means by which the Jewish people link themselves to G-d” (338). Separating law from the Biblical text destroys its essence by severing “an indelible and essential link.” We can now circle back to Hazony’s opening idea. The Torah’s narratives provide us not only with food for thought, but also with instructions of how to live. Through them, we learn not only that Hashem exists and has a plan for us, but also how we can aid in bringing that plan to fruition. In Hazony’s framework, ongoing revelations that remove the real people and events from historical necessity eliminate the shared standard that once united all streams of Judaism—the revelation to Moshe at Sinai. All of the many disagreements throughout history revolved around trying to ascertain what was most loyal to the teaching Moshe received at Sinai. “Ongoing revelation” rejects that standard, and thereby misunderstands all of Jewish teachings throughout history. This lack of a historical baseline, Hazony

argues, ultimately spells the end of Judaism: “Without such a standard, the arguments and perspectives that are derived from Torah in our own generation would not remain within the framework of a single enterprise. The Torah would shatter, splintering into separate sects, and our tradition would, G-d forbid, come to an end” (74). The above discussions represent only a partial selection of the fascinating voices that The Revelation at Sinai brings to the table. Each contribution is worthy of deep consideration not only to satisfy our intellectual curiosity, but so that we can truly comprehend what it means to be recipients of Hashem’s revelation. If we are to truly identify with what it means to live with the Torah on earth, we must first understand what it means for the Torah to have come to us from Heaven. The Revelation at Sinai is a must-read for anyone who has confronted these questions and wishes to address them without sacrificing traditional belief. Notes 1. https://thecjn.ca/perspectives/opinions/ orthodox-scholarship-neither/. 2. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, made a similar point in a letter written to Louis Jacobs in which he argued that when there is “a choice between alternative interpretive schema, so long as each is internally consistent… a Jew may choose a traditional reading of the text [over a non-traditional one] without laying himself open to a justified charge of ‘lack of objectivity.’” (Cited in Meir Persoff, Another Way, Another Time: Religious Inclusivism and the Sacks Chief Rabbinate [Brighton, 2010], 12).

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Hidden Heroes: One Woman’s Story of Resistance and Rescue in the Soviet Union

By Pamela Braun Cohen Jerusalem, 2021 384 pages

Reviewed by Rabbi Dr. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff

y revered teacher, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, decried the ineptness of American Jewry in its failure to save European Jews during World War II. In his lecture at the RCA Annual Convention on June 20, 1977, the Rav declared: A layman once suggested to me that we should include another Al Het in our Yom Kippur confessional: “for the sins we have committed in being unresponsive to the cries of our brethren in Europe who were being brutally slaughtered.” He was quite right! I am not blaming anybody. I am blaming myself. Why didn’t I act like Mordecai when he heard the

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news about the evil decree issued by Haman and Ahasuerus? Why didn’t I “go out into the center of the city and shout bitterly and loudly” [Esther 4:1]? Why didn’t I shout, yell, and cry? Why didn’t I tear my clothes like Mordecai? Why didn’t I awaken the Jewish leaders? I am not blaming anybody. This was the punishment for our being idol worshipers. Our faith in Roosevelt bordered on idolatry (The Rav: The World of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, vol. 2 [New Jersey, 1999], 156-57). Perhaps world Jewry internalized this message. When the plight of Russian Jewry became widely known, Am Yisrael rose to the challenge. The saga of the physical and spiritual revival of Soviet Jewry is an extraordinary achievement, second only to the establishment of the State of Israel. The worldwide Jewish people succeeded in returning their brethren and kin to Jewish peoplehood. This achievement was so overpowering that the Rav had difficulty accepting the new reality. He had suffered under the Communists, and he retained apprehension and trepidation toward their evil lifestyle throughout his life. In a lecture about Chanukah that he delivered in Boston on December 18, 1971, the Rav expounded on the concept of amcha Yisrael (“Your people Israel”; see translation in the Koren Mesorat HaRav Siddur, p. 142): In the prayer for Hanukah we recite: “When a wicked Hellenic government rose up against amkhaYisrael. . . .” What does the expression amkha-Yisrael mean? It could have said that the Hellenic government rose up against “Israel” or against “Thy people.” Why does the prayer stress “Thy people Israel”? What does this specific term express?

Amkha means we belong to Thee. Amkha is a possessive noun. We belong to Thee even while we go astray and deviate from the righteous path. We are still committed to Thee even when we are guilty of certain offenses and certain sins. What comes to expression in Amkha is the old idea that “even though the people have sinned they are still called Israel” (Sanhedrin 44a). A Jew, even when he sins, remains a Jew. What does this mean? What did our Sages wish to express in this statement? It means there is an eternal commitment in the Jew to the Almighty. Sometimes it is a conscious commitment. Sometimes it is an unconscious commitment. However, there is a commitment which can never be annulled or severed. That commitment is like a heavy load pressing on the frail shoulders of every Jew. He may fight this commitment. He may hate it. But there is this commitment on the part of every Jew. The Jew basically cannot cast off this feeling. Habad calls this ha’ahavah ha’tiv’it, the natural love of G-d that every Jew possesses. Whether he has been trained or not, there is a natural instinctual drive and urge in the Jew to find G-d. Many Jews walk straight to that ultimate goal and move in the right direction. Some Jews are searching Rabbi Dr. Aaron RakeffetRothkoff is rosh yeshivah and professor of rabbinic literature at Yeshiva University’s Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Institute in Jerusalem. He is a noted scholar, author and teacher who has taught thousands of students throughout his over fifty years of teaching.

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for G-d, but in their search move in the opposite direction. Of course, they are lost sheep. This is man’s natural spontaneous urge and drive for G-d, but it comes to expression with more vigor in the Jew. That is the meaning of amkha. We belong to Thee, and there is no way we can free ourselves from Thee. That is the meaning of “[they] rose up against Thy people Israel— amkha-Yisrael. As a matter of fact, I will tell you frankly that some people think this is a beautiful idea but not valid in practical terms. Many a time I thought so myself. I began to doubt this philosophy that willy-nilly the Jew belongs to G-d. When I came to America, there was a tremendous assimilationist movement. It was assimilation in its most ugly and vulgar form. The first immigrants who came to America gave up everything. Then it seemed that Russian Jewry was completely lost. There was no general commitment on the part of the Jew. The observant Jew was a small and limited minority. There was no institution of Torah education in the United States. There were a couple of day schools, and even those were conducted in a desultory fashion. You could not be too optimistic about the philosophy of amkha-Yisrael. Now . . . things have happened which corroborate this philosophy. One thing is the awakening among the Jews of Russia. I really do not know if this is true. I am still skeptical. People who come from Russia tell me that it is true. I am still doubtful. Do you know why? It borders on the miraculous, because the revolution in Russia took place in 1917. That means that two generations have been raised in Russian schools that were atheistic from A to Z. Materialistic in outlook on the world and man, their teachings were particularly resentful of Judaism. I do not know why. Perhaps it is because Communism is a philosophy of atheism. Atheism is not something marginal or incidental. It is basic to the outlook of Communism. The Jew gave the world the concept of monotheism. A community founded upon atheism must hate a community which has brought the world the gospel of faith in G-d. Whatever it is, these Jews were raised as members of the Communist Russian society. If an awakening is taking place in Russia, the philosophy of amkhaYisrael is 100 percent correct. Again, I emphasize that I have doubts whether it is true. Perhaps it is limited to a small segment of Russian Jewry. However, if it is a movement, it validates the concept of amkha-Yisrael. After so many years of Russian education and training, young men are ready to cast off and shed the whole philosophy of Communism. They identify as Jews and are ready to go to Eretz Yisrael. Apparently, there is something to the Jew which is indicative of amkha-Yisrael. We belong to G-d, and no one can take us away from Him. This is very strange. Acknowledgment of being a Jew, be it secular or religious, is ipso facto an acknowledgment of belonging to G-d (The Rav, vol. 2, 99-101). Pamela Braun Cohen’s memoir attests to the authenticity of the Rav’s observations. Her book about her Russian activities and ventures captivated and enchanted my wife and myself. Reading it, we relived many of our experiences and emotions in our own endeavors in helping and guiding Soviet Jews through Nativ HaDemama (“The Silent Path”), the clandestine Israeli governmental organization that worked to strengthen Jewish Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

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identity and encourage aliyah among Soviet Jews. [The State of Israel invested millions of dollars in this operation.] The book, entitled Hidden Heroes: One Woman’s Story of Resistance and Rescue in the Soviet Union, centers around Pam Cohen, a young housewife and mother. Cohen’s family lives in a Chicago suburb, belongs to a Temple and is gradually assimilating into Western culture and lifestyle. In all probability, her family would become another spiritually lost American Jewish family. This all changed one evening in 1970, when a broadcast reported that a group of Soviet Jews had been arrested for attempting to hijack a plane from Leningrad to the West. That evening Cohen began a journey, supported by her husband Lenny, that would culminate decades later in a total return to our eternal Torah in the Holy City of Jerusalem. Haunted by the legacy of the Holocaust, when Western Jewry failed to save their European brethren, Cohen became a super activist in the Soviet Jewry movement. She served as co-chair of the Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry from 1978 until 1986, and subsequently, she became the national president of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jewry (UCSJ). Her leadership role took her to the halls of Congress and the White House. She made frequent trips to the Soviet Union and other European countries as she relentlessly crusaded on behalf of the ever-increasing refusenik community. From Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and the distant republics of Central Asia, the Jews behind the Iron Curtain come to life in this volume. We experience them discovering their identity, protesting on the streets, defending themselves in Soviet courtrooms, defying jailers in their prison cells, and struggling to survive in Siberian labor camps. This well-documented memoir that spans three decades chronicles the story of the resistance and moral courage of men and women inside the Soviet Union and of those in the West who endlessly crusaded on their behalf. A central theme throughout the volume is the chasm that existed between the “Jewish establishment organizations,” both Israeli and 108

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American, that sought to assist Soviet Jewry and the independent grassroots organizations motivated by the same goal. In 1952, Israeli intelligence had already established an agency, mentioned above, that became known as Nativ HaDemama, which was devoted exclusively to supporting Jews behind the Iron Curtain. Subsequently, other organizations, all part of the American Jewish establishment, appeared on the scene. Cohen, however, became active in UCSJ, a grassroots movement that cooperated with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) organization, both groups that did not necessarily adhere to the establishment’s approach in assisting Soviet Jewry. [At the time, the American Jewish establishment organizations took direction from the Israeli government on how to deal with Soviet Jewry.] Conflicts and controversies arose over issues such as confrontation versus quiet diplomacy, backing of the Russian dissident movement that focused on the fight for democracy and human rights, and support for the notion that Jews leaving the Soviet Union on Israeli visas had the right to “drop out” and resettle in America. As one who traveled to the Soviet Union for the Mossad numerous times in the 1980s, I understood that the Israeli government’s approach in dealing with Russia, an international power, rested on the way it viewed the situation at any given moment. While at times Israeli officials felt proactive demonstrations were called for, at other times the government preferred working behind the scenes. In retrospect, my feeling is that both approaches—the intense and often provocative activism as well as the quiet diplomacy—were needed to ultimately free Soviet Jewry. Pamela Cohen worked outside of the establishment—but there were others who did too. One example was Ruth Bloch of Zurich, Switzerland, who is mentioned in Hidden Heroes. Following her initial visit to the Soviet Union, she centered her life around helping the refuseniks she had encountered behind the Iron Curtain. Similarly, Ernie and Linda Hirsch of London made tremendous sacrifices for Russian Jewry. After Ernie’s initial

trip to Moscow in 1980, he and his wife mobilized the Torah community of London and organized the Russian Religious Jews (RRJ) charity fund. From 1980 through 1990, they sent 153 emissaries to Moscow who did lifesaving work there, including teaching Torah, arranging brit milot and bringing winter clothes and kosher food. No doubt the still fresh scars of the Holocaust motivated many American Jews to hear the cries of their Russian brethren. Cohen makes frequent references to the Holocaust throughout the book. She writes: Where were the voices protesting the murder of 6 million Jews? When the truth trickled in from across the ocean—news of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and Ravensbruck— where was the collective outcry from the millions of Jews who were safe in America? Why did so few answer the call to save so many? (p. 21) My wife and I used the same argument when trying to attract more Israelis with dual citizenship to get involved in Nativ. This book is aptly titled Hidden Heroes, referring to the Russian Jews who risked security and temporal well-being to return to the eternal Torah and the Jewish national homeland. I would suggest that the title also alludes to those Western Jews who answered the supplications of their brethren. They too more fully embraced a more intensive Jewish lifestyle enhanced by Torah and tradition. There is no better example of the latter than Pamela Braun Cohen.

Reviews in Brief By Rabbi Gil Student GEMATRIA REFIGURED: A NEW LOOK AT HOW THE TORAH CONVEYS IDEAS THROUGH NUMBERS By Rabbi Elie Feder, PhD Mosaica Press Los Angeles, 2022 188 pages

ematria is the calculation of the numerical equivalent of Hebrew words by assigning numbers to Hebrew letters. The casual student of Torah will occasionally come across gematria interpretations that make connections between numerically equivalent words. Often, these interpretations catch our attention and stick with us because of their clever creation of meaning through letters and numbers. But do they make sense? Because Rabbi Elie Feder is a professor of mathematics, people assume he must enjoy a good gematria. After all, so many people who do not like numbers find gematriot pleasing. Certainly someone with a love for numbers must also love numberdriven Torah interpretations. Yet, to the contrary, Rabbi Feder, who is also

a maggid shiur at a Queens yeshivah, initially found many gematriot to be farfetched and unconvincing. He was a self-described gematria skeptic. And then he had an insight, an original understanding of how a good gematria builds on textual cues and explains specific difficulties. The essence of Rabbi Feder’s theory is that a gematria converts a word into a number in order to direct the reader’s attention to an issue related to quantity. For example, the Torah (Bereishit 24:1) says that G-d blessed Avraham with “everything” (bakol). Rashi explains that the numerical equivalent of “bakol” is “ben,” which means “son.” Therefore, this verse means that G-d blessed Avraham with a son. Rabbi Feder points out that it is ludicrous to read the verse as meaning that G-d blessed Avraham with literally everything. That would mean an infinite showering of material and spiritual gifts. Rather, the one thing that Avraham wanted most was a son. Rashi (Bereishit 15:3) describes Avraham as saying to G-d, “Behold You have not given me a child—what benefit is everything that You give me?” Without someone to carry on his legacy, Avraham felt that he had nothing. Instead, Rashi and the Sages teach us that G-d blessed Avraham with something specific that to him was equivalent to everything, namely a son. They teach this with a gematria to shine a light on the quantitative aspect of this insight. Rabbi Feder continues to explain a number of other gematria interpretations in a similar fashion. Rashi (Shemot 32:4) says that the Golden Calf was made with 125 talents of gold, the gematria of the word “masechah” (molten) used in the text. The gematria method of teaching is used here in order to focus our attention on the enormity of the sin, which includes the huge quantity of gold used to build the idol—more than twice as much gold as was used in the entire Mishkan. The Torah (Bamidbar 6:5) says that a nazir “will be (yihyeh) holy.” The Mishnah (Nazir 5a) teaches that the standard length of

a nazir vow is thirty days, based on the gematria of the word “yihyeh.” Rabbi Feder explains that the acceptance of a nazir vow requires growth in personal holiness over a period of time in which the restrictions are observed. The gematria teaches us to look not only at the qualitative aspect of the growth, but also the quantitative aspect. More than a book explaining the gematria method, this is a story of a personal journey from gematria skeptic to gematria enthusiast. Rabbi Feder utilizes his ample commentarial skills to build a framework in which the gematriot operate. The reader might not find all of Rabbi Feder’s explanations convincing and might even question the overall approach. Regardless, Rabbi Feder’s decades-long effort to find the depth and sophistication of a seemingly simple commentarial method serves as an important lesson in faith, humility and commitment.

WHY GOD WHY? HOW TO BELIEVE IN HEAVEN WHEN IT HURTS LIKE HELL By Rabbi Gershon Schusterman Providence Press Los Angeles, 2022 256 pages

ewish philosophical literature is filled with different answers to the classic question: “Why do bad things happen to good people?” Many people find any single answer or combination of answers Spring 5783/2023 JEWISH ACTION

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convincing on an intellectual level. But if, G-d forbid, they face tragedy in their own lives, they might reassess their evaluation. Rabbi Gershon Schusterman, a Chabad rabbi in Southern California who led a day school for many years, had comforted mourners with many of the standard answers until he became the mourner, with the untimely passing of his thirty-six-year-old wife, a mother of eleven. Suddenly the emotional weight seemed much heavier than the traditional texts could bear. In this thoughtful and eloquent book, written over the many decades since he faced that personal tragedy, Rabbi Schusterman takes readers through the different traditional Jewish answers to the theological problem of tragedy. He sensitively probes the answers, showing their strengths, and pointing out with moving stories when they fall short. A toddler dying; a young lady who becomes religious and then discovers she has a degenerative disease; a man fatally hit by a car while delivering matzah to the homebound. Can we explain why these tragedies happened? The philosophical literature contains answers, but they do not necessarily satisfy. Through introspection over his own personal tragedy and how it affected him, Rabbi Schusterman speaks person-to-person, as a peer, with someone suffering. Explanations that might feel trite coming from someone else—e.g., suffering makes you a better person—ring true when Rabbi Schusterman talks about his own hard journey. In his Sha’ar HaGemul, Ramban explores various answers to the question of tragedy and ultimately ends with the conclusion that we cannot fully understand G-d’s ways. If so, asks Ramban, why bother exploring the different answers and approaches? Because there is value in trying to understand. Even the partial truths, the semi-answers, can comfort some who are suffering and satisfy some who have questions. We need not answer every question and tie up every loose end in order to provide value. Rabbi Schusterman similarly reaches the end of human understanding and concludes with G-d’s unfathomable 110

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ways, particularly regarding the have developed mechanisms for Holocaust. However, by asking the maintaining our continuity. The late difficult questions, he validates others historian Professor Jacob Katz brought with similar concerns. By exploring to the attention of the scholarly the different possible answers, he offers world how Jews have acted toward consolation and meaning to those and thought about Christians in the who are searching. And by concluding Medieval and Early Modern Era. In that we can never fully understand particular, he highlighted changes in G-d’s ways, he defers to faith without how we deal with the problem of the compromising his integrity. apostate, that is, a Jew who leaves the More than a collection of answers Jewish community and joins another for tragedy, this book is the story of faith community. Do we erect a large a journey of overcoming personal fence against apostates to make it tragedy. One does not primarily need harder for people to leave, or do we answers; one needs faith. If answers maintain close, respectful relations to strengthen your faith, if they resonate encourage them to return? Because with you, then you can find them in the Talmud offers little direct guidance, Rabbi Schusterman’s skillful discussion. later authorities had to rule based on However, over decades of consoling established custom and analogy to mourners, Rabbi Schusterman has other categories. found that people need G-d more than According to Professor Katz, the they need answers. This book is about Ashkenazic community radically confronting G-d with your tragedy changed its approach at the onset of and working through your complex the Modern Era. Rashi set the tone for and conflicted feelings in an ongoing Medieval Ashkenazim by applying to dialogue with the Master of our world. apostates the Talmudic statement that a Jew who sins remains a Jew. There may have been some limitations on BROTHERS FROM AFAR: an apostate, but the general attitude RABBINIC APPROACHES TO among Ashkenazic rabbis of this APOSTASY AND REVERSION time was to keep the fence low and IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE treat apostates as wayward Jews, as “one of us,” even if living outside the By Ephraim Kanarfogel community. A popular custom arose Wayne State University Press to require a returning apostate to Detroit, 2021 immerse himself in a mikvah, but that 260 pages was not required by rabbis. According to Professor Katz’s influential theory, when the Modern Era began in the sixteenth century, the Jewish community’s position in relation to the Christian community changed and rabbis began raising the fence. Apostates were treated more like gentiles with a Jewish heritage. Rabbi Dr. Ephraim Kanarfogel, a professor of Jewish history, literature and law at the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Jewish Studies and Stern College for Women, revisits and revises this theory in his Brothers from Afar. A student of Professor Katz,

he way we treat those who leave our community reflects, to some degree, the hopes and fears we have for our future generations. Long a minority in hostile countries, the Jewish people

Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and runs Torahmusings.com. He is a member of the Jewish Action Editorial Board.

Rabbi Kanarfogel respectfully argues that in Medieval France and Germany, the Tosafists explored the status of apostates and applied many restrictions to them. Rabbi Kanarfogel does this through amassing a dizzying array of Medieval sources that demonstrate the widespread engagement with this difficult issue. Studying the Tosafists requires expertise not only in the published editions of Tosafot and related literature but also in the vast stores of as-yet-unpublished manuscripts and the new volumes that are continually published from manuscripts. Rabbi Kanarfogel demonstrates from across these texts a very different picture of Medieval Ashkenazic attitudes toward apostates. For example, Rabbeinu Tam, Rabbi Yitzchak of Dampierre (the Ri) and Rabbi Eliezer of Metz (all from the twelfth century) allowed a Jew to lend money with interest to an apostate despite the prohibition of taking interest from a Jew. They permit this not just because an apostate does not act like a “brother,” but because he has a status similar to a gentile. The Ri confirmed the need for a returning apostate to immerse in a mikvah, and Rabbi Shimshon of Sens (the Rash) required an additional, more formal acceptance of the commandments on return. Some Tosafists considered a returning apostate to be akin to a convert. Others compared him to someone in Talmudic times who wished to acquire the status of a chaver, a person who is acknowledged as being careful with the laws of purity and agricultural tithes in contrast to an am ha’aretz, who is not trusted on these issues. There is significant debate over the status of marriages and divorces involving apostates. The serious nature of marriage generally yields strict rulings, which makes any leniencies to disregard apostate marriages and divorces surprising. However, despite the general stringency in this area, we find Tosafists who are willing to allow for some leniency regarding these and the requirement for yibum (levirate marriage) and chalitzah. As can be expected from Tosafists, their positions differ greatly based on nuanced arguments. The brief summary above of just a few of the issues can only serve as a hint to Rabbi Kanarfogel’s robust discussion. What emerges from this Tosafist tapestry is clear evidence that even Medieval Ashkenazim had halachic fences against apostates. On these issues, the Ashkenazic Modern Era flowed directly from its Medieval precedents, with the different authorities building on the traditions they received. We find that Professor Katz highlighted an important area of halachic history, which a student developed further, revising his teacher’s theories based on new evidence and analysis. Professor Katz asked the important questions that laid the groundwork for future study.

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LASTING IMPRESSIONS

THE BEST IS YET TO BE By David Olivestone

s I grow older, I sometimes find myself attempting to compare the way I am now with how I remember my father when he was around my age. Of course, I can only speculate what was in my father’s head when he was in his upper 70s. But my fellow seniors and I all marvel at how young we feel, and it’s undeniable that our generation is far fitter and far more active than our parents were at this stage of life. That’s not to say aging today is easy. My calendar lists many more doctors’ appointments than it used to, and my daily “Things to Do” list seems to grow rather than contract as tiredness sets in and more and more items get pushed to tomorrow. Names that I know I know well hover just beyond reach until I go through the alphabet in my mind in search of a hint. The perfect word to complete my sentence remains obstinately elusive until I rediscover it in my online thesaurus. Growing old is the theme of one of my favorite poems. Although I’ve never really loved poetry, nor do I find it as uplifting as many others do, I enjoy reading the works of Robert Browning (1812–1889). His celebrated

dramatic monologue, Rabbi Ben Ezra, was among the first poems I had to study in my British school. Its very opening lines, which have taken on a life of their own throughout the English-speaking world, immediately lodged themselves in my mind: Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be. Even though close to half of my classmates were Jewish, I don’t recall the question being raised as to why this Victorian poet chose Avraham Ibn Ezra, the twelfth-century paytan and author of one of the classic commentaries on Tanach, as the narrator of his poem. So as I reread it more recently, and found myself identifying more closely with its theme of aging, I became curious and set out to discover what Browning’s connection with Judaism was. In fact, there are frequent references to Judaism and to rabbinic literature in Browning’s work, and online I discovered many scholarly attempts to trace the influences that triggered his interest. It seems, first of all, that his father’s huge personal library of over 6,000 volumes included some rabbinic works and Hebrew grammars. These must have fascinated him, because he went on to study Hebrew and could read and understand it with considerable ease. Later in life, Browning spent several winters living very near the Jewish ghetto in Rome and became familiar with its population and its deplorable conditions. In his poem Holy Cross Day, the poet imagines and voices the defiant inner thoughts of a Jew in the Roman ghetto who is forced to listen to the conversionist sermon of a Dominican friar, a hateful practice that was imposed on the Jewish community well into the nineteenth century. Also, Browning struck up a friendship with the American Jewish poet Emma Lazarus during her 1883 visit to London,

In fact, there are frequent references to Judaism and to rabbinic literature in [Robert] Browning’s work. 112

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and they reportedly discussed the meaning of various Hebrew words in the Bible. He displayed his empathy with the Jewish community by joining an 1881 protest against the treatment of the Jews in Russia, and by becoming a member of the committee of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition held in London in 1887. I also learned a little more about Ibn Ezra and was intrigued to discover that during his many travels, he apparently visited England at least once, in 1158, though it is uncertain if Browning would have known this. As I reread Rabbi Ben Ezra, I couldn’t identify any specifically Jewish content, but it has been described as setting out a typically optimistic Jewish perspective, in direct contrast to the generally negative concept of old age in Victorian society. A line in the very first stanza, for example, Our times are in His hand, is a reference to Tehillim (31:16), be’yadcha itotai. Checking the original Hebrew, I saw that the context is David Hamelech’s personal plea and confidence in G-d that He will save him from his enemies. But Browning takes it as a statement of confidence in G-d’s plan for each and every individual in each stage of life, right up to the very last. And so as I myself advance in age, and every now and then experience some of the more disquieting annoyances that the creeping years inevitably bring, I reflect on Browning’s (or should I say Ibn Ezra’s?) assurance that “the best is yet to be,” and on the prayerful words that follow: Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be, The last of life, for which the first was made: Our times are in His hand Who saith “A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust G-d: see all, nor be afraid!”

David Olivestone, an awardwinning writer and a member of Jewish Action’s Editorial Committee, retired as the OU’s director of communications in 2013. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Ceil.

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The New Look of