After Newtown Tragedy, OU Advises Caution and Vigilance By Michael Orbach
54 Rabbi Steven Burg: Twenty-two Years of Dedicated Service to NCSY
56 NEW BOOKS FROM OU PRESS
58 KOSHER@WORK
In Search of a Cup of Coffee By Eli Gersten SPECIAL SECTION
60 ISRAEL
On and Off the Beaten Track at . . . Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu A religious kibbutz that is a world leader in the technology of organic farming By Peter Abelow
64 Confessions of a Kosher Organic Junkie By Rachel Wizenfeld
66 Meet the Hanaus: Providing Kosher, Ethically Produced Meat and Poultry By Rachel Wizenfeld
68 WELLNESS REPORT Is Pesach Cleaning Hazardous to Your Health? By Shira Isenberg
72 THE CHEF’S TABLE A Non-Gebrokts, Gluten-Free Passover By Norene Gilletz
74 Hold the Knaidlach By Carol Ungar
76 Non-Gebrokts Food: The Newest Trend By Carol Ungar BOOKS
78 Sefer Shiurei HaRav on Tefillah and Keriat Shema By Rabbi Menachem Genack
Reviewed by Yona Reiss
80 Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy, Simple & Stylish The Bais Yaakov Cookbook Temptation Dash
Reviewed by Carrie R. Beylus
82 First Impressions of the Koren Talmud Bavli By Harvey Belovski
86 The Starbucks Talmud By Gil Student
88 LASTING IMPRESSIONS My Pesach Miracle By Judy Gruen
On The God Who Hates Lies
g In his review of Rabbi David Hartman’s book The God Who Hates Lies: Confronting & Rethinking Jewish Tradition (winter 2012),Rabbi Gil Student simply states that he found Rabbi Hartman’s arguments to be “unconvincing” and thus “need no rebuttal.”
I’m not sure how this qualifies as a legitimate review and what value it offers people who are considering reading the book. In this same overly simplistic spirit, I would to like to counter by stating that I found Rabbi Hartman’s arguments to be convincing and the ethical versus halachic arguments he raises to be quite disturbing. And I was happy to hear that he feels the halachic framework does support ways in which it is possible to free an agunah His book is an important read for anyone who cares about an ethical halachic system.
ROBBY BERMAN
Jerusalem, Israel
Rabbi Gil Student Responds
g I thank Mr. Berman for his letter. As the title of my column indicates, these are brief reviews. In the short space allocated for this book, I attempted to summarize the book’s main arguments using the author’s own words as much as possible to avoid accusations of exaggeration and misrepresentation. I believe that this brief discussion offers readers an idea of what is discussed in the book and how it is perceived by at least some readers. I am surprised that Mr. Berman does not consider that sufficient for a “legitimate review” unless he disagrees with the entire concept of a brief review, which is a fairly standard feature in magazines and journals. While I am happy to write at length on the subject, this column is not the forum for such an exercise.
The Work/Life Balance
g There is a “striking” contrast between the winter cover (“Striking a Balance: Work and Family) showing a woman single-handedly (with four hands) doing it all successfully and the interviews of real-life successful working women. The common themes that emerge from the interviews are the importance of a helpful husband and a reliable babysitter and workplace flexibility. The Orthodox Jewish community is taken to task by many of the women for not making yeshivah schedules more accommodating and for having workplaces that are worse for working mothers than secular places of business. A number of women say they wished they had frum female mentors. But the message depicted on the cover, that balancing work and family is entirely a woman’s responsibility, is a dangerous myth that undermines working women and their families.
MARINA GOODMAN West Orange, New Jersey
g Your recent cover story, which includes profiles of working women and “Tips for the Working Mom,” is an important one. Having two solid incomes has become a necessity for leading an affordable Orthodox lifestyle. Each woman shows how she prioritizes her career while remaining firm in her religious beliefs. It was helpful to see models of professional Orthodox women represented in different fields. Orthodox women have come to understand that they have the abilities to make such contributions. The concept of sipuk is critical. Women working outside of the home can and should feel satisfaction beyond a paycheck. It makes no sense to go to work every day with the baggage of a guilt trip. Of
Jewish Action
THE MAGAZINE OF THE ORTHODOX UNION www.ou.org/jewish_action
Editor
Nechama Carmel carmeln@ou.org
Literary Editor
Matis Greenblatt
Assistant Editor Rashel Zywica
Contributing Editors
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein • Dr. Judith Bleich
Rabbi Emanuel Feldman • Rabbi Hillel Goldberg
Rabbi Joseph Grunblatt • Rabbi Sol Roth
Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter • Rabbi Berel Wein
Editorial Committee
David Bashevkin • Binyamin Ehrenkranz
Mayer Fertig• David Olivestone • Gerald M. Schreck
Rabbi Gil Student • Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Advertising Director
Carrie R. Beylus • 212.613.8226 beylusc@ou.org
Advertising Coordinator
Malka Braun
Subscriptions 212.613.8146
Design
KZ Creative
ORTHODOX UNION
Executive Vice President
Rabbi Steven Weil
Executive Vice President, Emeritus
Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb
Senior Director of Institutional Advancement
Paul S. Glasser
Chief Financial Officer
Shlomo Schwartz
Chief Operating Officer
David T. Frankel
Chief Communications Officer
Mayer Fertig
President Dr. Simcha Katz
Chairman of the Board
Stephen J. Savitsky
Chairman, Board of Governors
Mark Bane
Communications Commission
Gerald M. Schreck, Chairman
Joel M. Schreiber, Chairman Emeritus Barbara Lehmann Siegel; Dr. Herbert Schlager; Rabbi Gil Student; Michael C. Wimpfheimer
course, working full time while raising children is challenging and requires juggling. But those who can find peace doing so will ultimately be better mothers, wives and people.
This issue should be recommended reading for young Orthodox women.
ELLY D. LASSON, PH.D.
Executive Director, Joblink of Maryland, Inc. Baltimore, Maryland
Allergic to Treif
g I found Rabbi Eli Gersten’s article addressing the kosher concerns of cut fruit (“Cut Fruit at the Office,” winter 2012) particularly fascinating, since I came close to dying as a result of this issue.
A few years ago while on vacation in Cyprus, my husband and I had brought kosher food for lunch and dinner but felt that eating fruit at the breakfast buffet shouldn’t be of much concern. En route to the airport later that day, my breathing constricted and I broke out in terrible hives. We stupidly boarded the thankfully short flight home to Israel, and I went straight from the airport to an emergency medical clinic where the doctors saved me from deadly anaphylactic shock.
It turned out that the chef’s rubber gloves contained a trace of shellfish and other non-kosher substances I had never before consumed to which I was extremely allergic. This is just another reason to take the subject covered in the article very seriously.
SHELLY LEVINE
Jerusalem, Israel
Torah in Germany
g I was greatly disturbed by the article “Torah Judaism is Alive in Germany” by Bayla Sheva Brenner (winter 2012).
The article mentions how thousands of Jews from the USSR immigrated to Germany, lured by generous resettlement packages from the German government. Yet, it took the Germans almost seventy years to send postwar reparations to my father who spent his childhood in Buchenwald, the logic being that if my father died in the meantime, they wouldn’t have to pay him at all.
ACTION Spring 5773/2013
Millions of Jews murdered in Germany during the Holocaust were cremated. Thus, the Jews in Germany today are living on their ancestors’ graves. The article seems to be promoting Jewish life in Germany. No Jew in his right mind should do that.
DAVID N. RODGERS
Flushing, New York
I enjoyed the winter issue and was particularly intrigued by Bayla Sheva Brenner’s excellent article about my nephew Rabbi Josh Spinner. Due to Josh’s valiant efforts, Torah Judaism is indeed alive in Germany. That is only true, I must add, due to the valiant efforts of his lovely wife, Joelle, who has been instrumental in creating a sense of community—Jewish community—in Berlin.
Joelle has so graciously been hosting Shabbat and yom tov meals, engagement parties, sheva berachot and more for over a decade—all while raising her own three children and being active professionally. She has served as a role model of a frum, successful Jewish woman and has influenced dozens of young women to follow in her path. Wishing our dear Joelle and Josh continued success in their sacred mission.
MIRIAM LIEBERMANN
New York, New York
“Half-Shabbos”
g I enjoyed Rabbi Shalom Baum’s letter in response to the article “Is HalfShabbos Really No Shabbos?” (fall 2012) on the dangers of calling teens who text on Shabbat michalilei Shabbat. But the question that remains is, what are we doing to turn our teenagers on? How can we expect our teenagers to stay on the correct path if we aren’t attracting them to it?
First and foremost, we have to stop focusing on teens being turned off. The Torah’s ways are inherently attractive; we need to think about how to draw teens to Torah instead of ramrodding them.
Secondly, in our schools, we must stop testing in Judaic studies classes. I know this sounds radical, but plenty of educators practice this and it works. Stress is one of the main causes of teen
resentment. Of course our Torah classes must be attractive, inspiring and relevant as well.
Finally, parents need to develop and share their excitement for mitzvot Rabbi Efrem Goldberg, senior rabbi of the Boca Raton Synagogue, talks about bringing the excitement of erev Shabbat into our homes. When it comes to our discussions of mitzvot, we must reframe our tone to one of enthusiasm, excitement and zest.
Our teens aren’t failing; we are failing our teens, and we must do a better job.
RABBI URI PILICHOWSKI
Teen rabbi at Boca Raton Synagogue Boca Raton, Florida
Reading about the term “Half Shabbos” used to describe those who use their cell phones on Shabbat (summer 2012), made me think of another area where cell phones have made inroads into the observant community.
One morning last week, I counted six phones ringing during Shacharit. Those who, while davening, look to see who is calling on their cell phones, occasionally answer and send text messagescould legitimately be called “Half Daveners.”
ANONYMOUS
Jerusalem, Israel
About the cover:
The verse on the cover, a blessing, which means “Whose mighty power and might fill the world,” is recited upon hearing thunder or experiencing earthquakes or tornadoes.
President’sMessage
By Dr. Simcha Katz
Blended Learning: The Newest Frontier in Jewish Education?
How do we significantly cut costs while not compromising on quality?
This is the question facing every Jewish day school in the country struggling with the escalating costs of Jewish education. Admittedly, there is no simple answer to this question; no silver bullet.
The Orthodox Union is fully committed to building legislative support for school choice (http://www.ou.org/texas-school-choice; http://www.ou.org/teach-nys) and with communal support, we will, please God, prevail. But this approach requires patience; it will take time.
A more immediate solution may, however, be on the horizon. In my own community of Bergen County, New Jersey, one school has quietly begun a revolutionary experiment in Jewish education that has significantly reduced tuition costs. Yeshivat He’Atid, which opened this past September with 116 students, embraces a new and innovative—if somewhat controversial—educational approach known as “blended learning.” Remarkably, Yeshivat He’Atid’s tuition is 40 percent less than other schools in Bergen County.
What is blended learning and how does it manage to dramatically cut costs? Blended learning combines independent computer instruction with face-to-face traditional classroom methods. While my experience as an educator has been limited to teaching on the graduate school level for the past several decades, I believe that blended learning, while still in the experimental stages, may be one of the most exciting developments in the world of education, with particular effectiveness in grades one through twelve.
Envision twenty-first-century classrooms outfitted with big screens, laptops and software that teaches students everything from converting percents to decimals to writing persuasive essays. This groundbreaking educational model is increasingly found in public schools across the country. Imagine students using specially-designed interactive software programs to master Hebrew grammar and Chumash— the possibilities are endless! Indeed, many yeshivot have been slowly introducing digital media into their limudei kodesh classes. For instance, The Frisch School in New Jersey recently developed an iPad app for Gemara. And while educational software for Judaic studies is currently limited, companies and vendors are hard at work developing such materials. One extraordinary resource is the Aleph Beta Academy, launched by Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone, regional director of New York NCSY.
With the explosion in digital learning across the country, not surprisingly, Jewish schools have begun to take no-
tice. Tiferet Academy in the Five Towns and Westchester Torah Academy, both scheduled to open this fall, will be blended learning schools. Ohr Chadash Academy in Baltimore, Maryland, is yet another model of digital learning, and similar schools have sprung up in East Brunswick, New Jersey; Sharon, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California and Seattle, Washington.
Advocates of blended learning—such as Meir Nordlicht, a board member of Westchester Torah Academy, and Gershon Distenfeld, chairman of the board of Yeshivat He’Atid—claim that it not only cuts costs, but it also provides a superior education. Teachers are able to customize computer activities for students based on skills and abilities, eliminating the need for both an enrichment program as well as a resource room. Moreover, because of the individualized learning component, classes can be larger than those in traditional schools. A higher student/teacher ratio also translates into savings. Furthermore, in some schools students take independent courses under the supervision of a facilitator (as opposed to a highlypaid teacher).
Nordlicht and Distenfeld contend that blended learning helps bring kids up to speed, teaching them twenty-first-century skills while ensuring that each child receives an individualized, personalized approach. Computer programs are continually assessing a child’s performance, providing invaluable feedback to the teacher. Most importantly, students get to learn at their own pace.
And yet, while I am excited about the possibilities of using digital learning to teach Chumash, Rashi and Gemara, I am cautiously optimistic. I know that opponents of blended learning also make compelling arguments. There is no hard data proving that blended learning impacts academic performance. It is foolish, opponents say, to jump headfirst into embracing a new educational approach when there is no evidence that the results will be any better. Moreover, many argue that in a blended classroom, students have to be selfmotivated, and that blended learning overemphasizes digital skills over the fundamentals such as math, reading and writing. Many also argue that there’s no substitute for teacherstudent interaction. One critic, cited in a New York Times article, referred to blended learning as little more than a “high-tech babysitter.”
In fact, blended learning does entail changing the teacher’s role. In a blended classroom, teachers guide more than they lecture, although effective programs strive to strike a balance.
Of course, the sacred rebbe-talmid relationship can never be replaced by a computer screen. A screen could never convey hashkafah or inculcate middot. AndI certainly don’t believe that a software program, no matter how sophisticated, can teach one to “lain a gemara.”
In Baltimore, Rabbi Akevy Greenblatt of Ohr Chadash is another passionate advocate of blended learning. The school has the lowest tuition in Baltimore for its grade levels. When the school was in the formation stage, there was some opposition to giving students iPads and Internet access. “Computers,” he told parents, “are not dangerous if students are taught to use them properly.”
Even established schools such as Yavneh Academy in Paramus, New Jersey, are gradually introducing blended learning, giving students some control over the pace and content of their learning. Currently, the Avi Chai Foundation is working with thirty-six established yeshivot and day schools nationally to set up blended learning programs, according to program officer Rachel Abrahams.
Whether it is a new or established school, there will be costs to incorporate the technology. Expenses include computers and software, licensing fees for the software, specialized furniture, wiring and, of course, teacher training. Schools must be aware that cost savings may not be realized in the first year, during which philanthropy must fill the gap. Is blended learning the panacea for which parents and educators have been searching? Is this approach feasible or even desirable for every Jewish day school and yeshivah? Do yeshivot and day schools have an obligation going forward to consider blended learning?
The jury is still out. Currently, all we can say with certainty is that this is an exciting venture in Jewish education that holds much promise. We have no guarantees that it will work. However, it is our responsibility to try various approaches and models to enable us to provide quality education at an affordable cost. And with God’s help, we will be successful. g
Special thanks to Stephen Steiner, director of OU public relations, in preparing this article.
To learn more about blended learning,contact Rachel Abrahams, program officer, Avi Chai (212) 396-8850; Gershon Distenfeld, gershon.distenfeld@gmail.com; Meir Nordlicht through Jeff Kiderman, executive director of the Affordable Jewish Education Project, jeff@ajeproject.org; Rabbi Akevy Greenblatt at rabbigreenblatt@ocabaltimore.org; Rabbi Aaron Ross at aaron.ross@yavnehacademy.org and Rabbi Aryeh Lightstone at alightstone@gmail.com.
In addition, the following print sources and videos are available: http://digitaljlearning.org/what-is-online-learning; http://digitaljlearning.org/online-learning/research; http://www.youtube.com/user/educationelements/videos.
You can obtain a copy of Avi Chai’s report Online Learning—State of the Field Survey, published in December 2012, by e-mailing info@avichaina.org.
By Gerald M. Schreck
When Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast some months ago, destroying many neighborhoods in its path, quite a few with large frum populations, I could not help but remember Hurricane Connie, which struck New York in the summer of 1955.
It was August, and my family and I were spending the summer on Beach 25th Street in the Rockaways. In those days, Rockaway Beach, dotted with hundreds of quaint, affordable bungalows, was a popular summer destination for Jewish families. My bar mitzvah was to take place on Shabbos, and while we had heard about an impending hurricane, we didn’t think much of it. I was eagerly anticipating my bar mitzvah; I had spent the year diligently preparing. I knew how to chant (lein)Parashas Re’eh—all 126 pesukim. My grandfather and a handful of friends and relatives had come to the Rockaways for the bar mitzvah, which was supposed to take place at the Hebrew Institute of Long Island, affectionately known as HILI, on Seagirt Boulevard. Unfortunately, that Friday night Hurricane Connie unleashed her wrath on New York, dumping more than twelve inches of rain in certain parts of the city. Meanwhile, the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay met,
flooding the streets so that no one could make it to HILI, which was a block or two away from the ocean.
Having prepared all year for my big day, I was crushed. I would not be able to lein As the water receded, I did manage to make it to shul later in the day and had an aliyah for Minchah, but it took me a long time to get over my deep disappointment over not being able to lein. Interestingly enough, however, two years later, the Young Israel of Bayswater officially opened its doors on Parashas Re’eh. I attended the new minyan, located in a converted storefront near Beach 25th Street, and I leined the parashah.
All these memories welled up inside me as I read this issue’s cover story on Hurricane Sandy. In this issue, we don’t focus on Sandy’s devastation, but rather on the extraordinary responses of ordinary people—a doctor from Far Rockaway who refused to evacuate and leave his patients, a woman who ran a veritable five-star hotel/shelter in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, a group of volunteers from Baltimore who brought more than $150,000 worth of emergency equipment to those in the Five Towns and other communities who were desperate for generators.
While the Young Israel of Bayswa-
ter is no longer on Beach 25th Street (it is now on Healy Avenue), the shul was one of the many wonderful institutions and communal organizations that served as havens for hurricane refugees, offering light, warmth, food, clothing and, above all, friendship, to those shattered and displaced during those initial chaotic days after the hurricane.
As I served on the Orthodox Union’s Hurricane Relief Committee, I personally witnessed much of the wreckage in Seagate and elsewhere. But time and again, what impressed me was not the extreme destruction, but rather the extreme chesed. There are so many heroes in the saga of Sandy, so much altruism, so much kindness. Achdus is the thread that runs throughout these amazing stories of giving and caring.
Just as I ultimately had the zechus of leining my bar mitzvah parashah, even if it was two years late, may Hashem allow the hurricane victims to experience a complete recovery—emotionally, physically and financially—in the near future. I invite you to read these uplifting stories, which remind us all of the true strength and kochos of Klal Yisrael.
Wishing everyone a chag kasher v’sameach. g
IFrom the Desk of RABBI STEVEN WEIL, Executive Vice President
had the unique experience of growing up on a cattle farm about fifty miles outside of Buffalo. When my family members escaped to America from Germany, they went into the same profession they had before Hitler. That profession, known as “viehandler” or cattle dealers, required living in a rural, agricultural area which, unfortunately, meant that we were about forty miles from the nearest Jew.
Attending a public school of predominately Lutheran, Methodist and Baptist students meant that when I got into a fight or disagreement, epithets such as “kike,” “dirty Jew” and “Christ killer” were among some of the endearing names I was called in the heat of the moment.
Long before I learned the ma’amar Chazal that you discover one’s nature and true feelings when you encounter them b’koso, b’keeso u’b’ka’aso (literally, one’s cup [how he handles alcohol], one’s pocket [how he handles money] and one’s anger), my schoolyard experiences provided insight into how my peers and so-called “friends” really viewed Jews. One of the more interesting epithets was “chosen one.” I was quite often accused of religious elitism for being a member of the Chosen People. It wasn’t until years later that I understood the source and the true meaning of the term “the Chosen People.”
My peers and their parents assumed that the term “Chosen People” meant that Jews believe they are superior, a better race and are God’s favorite. It is not only misunderstood by gentiles, but very often Jews themselves have no inkling of what it means to be chosen by Hashem.
The Chosen People
With the exception of the Kuzari, almost all Rishonim (medieval scholars) make it very clear that every human being, Jew and gentile alike, is created in the Divine image. The term tzelem Elokim is ascribed to all of humanity—not just Jews. Every human being is created in God’s image (i.e., we were all created with an abstract intellect that enables us to perceive the knowledge of God through the prisms of physics and metaphysics). No human being is inherently better than any other human being. If that is the case, then what does it mean that Jews are the Am Hanivchar, the Chosen Nation?
Am Hanivchar means that we were chosen to engage in a mission. We were chosen by God, and in turn, we chose to partner with God in the mission of the transformation and perfection of humanity. All human beings have an obligation to lead a life of ethical monotheism, which is encapsulated in the covenant that God made with humanity. We refer to that covenant as the Seven Mitzvot Bnei Noach. The Jewish people, by adopting the covenant of the Torah and its 613 mitzvot, not only adopted a change in their lifestyle, but adopted a system and society of perfected ethical monotheism. The Jewish nation does not have its own perfection as the end goal and purpose of the covenant. That covenant demands that we are responsible for the destiny of all of humanity. On the one hand, this is an awesome responsibility, and on the other, it is the greatest opportunity that a human being can have, to be able to work and partner with his Creator.
Jews are often accused of being parochial because the Torah demands that we view fellow members of the covenantal community as our brothers and sisters. However, no one is as universal and has a sense of responsibility for the welfare of all of humanity like the
Jew. The same Torah that demands a familial affinity insists upon responsibility for all of God’s creations—from a cherry tree to an overburdened ox to one’s fellow human being. When a Jew takes the concept of Am Hanivchar to heart, he or she looks at the world with a sense of breadth and perspective that transcends the trivial and small-minded mentality that so many people have. The responsibility and blessing of being a member of the Am Hanivchar creates a love, an appreciation and a concern for the welfare of one’s community, neighbor and society. It shapes our dreams, directs our energies and sensitizes us to the needs of others. This responsibility and opportunity of being a member of the Chosen People is not a cause for arrogance, but just the opposite—it engenders a profound sense of humility. Our mission, as God’s partners, is to create a world driven by ethical and moral principles and to develop a philosophical and theological perspective of humanity’s relationship to the reality of its own existence and its relationship to God. Even though the world has grown technologically, economically and scientifically in quantum leaps, we have a long way to go ethically, morally, philosophically and theologically. Unfortunately, humanity is light-years behind the previous stated areas of advancement.
Understanding our mission as the Am Hanivchar is crucial to its success. If we think of ourselves and conduct ourselves as superior, we will engender the kind of resentment and bitterness I faced as an adolescent in school, and worse, we will lose sight of the awesome responsibility we have to enlighten and elevate the nations of the world. We must always be mindful of our obligation to live a Godly life and set an example of goodness, decency and morality. Only then will our mission be fulfilled, and only then will we be worthy of having been chosen. g
www.korenpub.com w w w.korenpub.com
By Steve Lipman Achdut
The Jewish WORLD SERIES: Achdut Makes a HOME RUN
BASEBALL WAS ON RABBI ZVI KAHN’S MIND AS HE HEADED FROM HIS HOME IN COLUMBUS, OHIO, TO THE NEARBY JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER AFTER HAVDALAH ONE SATURDAY NIGHT IN MAY THREE YEARS AGO. MORE ACCURATELY, A BASEBALL TOURNAMENT.
Steve Lipman is a staff writer for the Jewish Week in New York.
A baseball tournament, unifying day school kids from young frum athletes with a chance to compete in a kosher Columbus Torah Academy Players.
Photos courtesy of Dr. Tricia Rosenstein
Rabbi Kahn is headmaster bus Torah Academy, a Modern dox day school (K-12) that was sponsoring a first-of-its-kind baseball tournament among four Jewish high schools over one long weekend in 2010. Earlier games on Thursday evening and Friday afternoon had drawn nice crowds of visiting parents and local fans, but the Motzaei Shabbat competition, starting at 10:30 PM,was the centerpiece of the tournament. Rabbi Kahn was worried that people wouldn’t show up.
He needn’t have worried.
As he drove up to the JCC, the site of the Columbus Baseball Invitational, he saw cars vying for parking spaces.
“The parking lot was full,” he says. “I had to park farther away, on a side street.”
The Saturday night crowd, the rabbi says, confirmed that the school’s decision to establish such a sports venture was a success, giving young frum athletes a chance to compete in a kosher atmosphere without Shabbat scheduling conflicts and with bleachers full of enthusiastic supporters.
Kosher Baseball
The need for such a Shabbat-considerate—if not strictly shomer Shabbat sports tournament was revealed last winter when the boys’ basketball team of Houston’s Beren Academy, a day school whose team had reached the semifinals in its league for small private and parochial schools, became the center of a national controversy. (See “Lessons from the Team That Wouldn’t Play on Shabbat” in this issue.) Beren nearly had to forfeit a game, and a shot at the championship, because the semifinal and final games were scheduled to be played on Shabbat. Following a firestorm of publicity, including support for the school from largely nonChristian celebrities and politicians, and sympathetic coverage by the Houston media, a Friday evening game was changed to Friday afternoon.
Beren won that semifinal; the final game was played Saturday night. The
ACTION Spring 5773/2013
issue created a major kiddush Hashem, educating the wider public about the specifics of Sabbath observance and the sacrifices it sometimes entails.
“[The tournament] is very important to these kids and their families,” Rabbi Kahn says.
“If adults ignore what [teens] are interested in, we’re going to lose them,” says Dr. Tricia Rosenstein, a pediatrician and Torah Academy parent.
For most teens, especially in a Modern Orthodox milieu where athletics often plays a prominent role, competitive sports are a normal—and valued—part of adolescence. This is especially so in Columbus, home of the Ohio State Buckeyes, one of college football’s most successful teams, and of fans who continue their rabid interest as alumni. On Friday night, Torah Academy students can hear the sound of fans cheering at high school football games in their neighborhoods.
The students, frum but worldly, want the excitement and recognition that surround other—non-Jewish— schools’ sports programs, family members of the day school students say.
“Kids need something a little bigger than themselves to feel part of,” says Dr. Rosenstein. “Now,” she says, “they get to hear their own cheering.”
“Athletics, like academics, provides the challenges that help shape both the mind and body,” according to the day
school’s sports blog (ctaathletics.blogspot.com). “Many studies show that qualities such as commitment and desire drive our students to compete and excel in the classroom, on the field and later, in their chosen professions.” Which is why the school said yes when Steve Guinan, a baseball coach and English teacher at Torah Academy, asked whether a baseball tournament among similar Modern Orthodox institutions is feasible.
A Tournament is Born
Word went out over the Internet and several schools expressed interest.
First at bat were Chicago’s Ida Crown Jewish Academy, Manhattan’s Ramaz School and the Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston, New Jersey. The initial Columbus Baseball Invitational—renamed the Jewish World Series—was born within a few months. The 2012 tournament included Ramaz, Ida Crown, Yeshiva Atlanta, Kushner and Rabbi Alexander S. Gross High School in Miami. A tournament is scheduled for this coming spring as well.
“We thought it would be more local, limited to schools closer to Columbus,” says Coach Guinan. To his surprise, more distant schools signed up for the tournament, which takes place after end-of-year exams are over.
Samuel Rosenstein, a student at Columbus Torah Academy, sliding into home plate.
“Kids need to feel part of something a little biggerthan themselves.”
Achudt on and off the Field
The teams arrived by plane, car and bus. The visiting players were hosted by members of the city’s Orthodox community. They davened on Shabbat in Congregation Torat Emet and before weekday games at the JCC, practiced on the JCC fields and attended shiurim together with Torah Academy students.
With the financial support of Torah Academy (a raffle brought in some funds), each school’s registration fee was kept down to $1,500, to encourage participation.
For the Jewish World Series players, the tournament is a chance to suit up against other Jewish athletes. “We get to be with other Jewish kids,” says Daniel Jacoby, a junior from Ida Crown. “It’s a nice benchmark. Everybody plays in different divisions and we get to see which is the best Jewish team out there.”
For the visiting teams, especially from the Greater New York area like Ramaz and Kushner, it’s a chance to see Orthodox life in other parts of the country.
Putting Columbus on the Jewish World Map
With a total Jewish population of about 22,000 (including some 350 frum families), Columbus has fewer Jews than some New York neighborhoods; Torah Academy’s total student enrollment barely tops 220. The city has hosted past gatherings such as smaller-scale regional NCSY conventions, but the tournament is a chance to really show off.“We have gone to Shabbatons in other cities for basketball tournaments and were viewed only as a small school from Ohio; we wanted to put Columbus Torah Academy on the map,” Athletic Director Matt Bailey says. “Now we go to tournaments and I am constantly asked by other coaches, administrators and parents, ‘Aren’t you the school with the baseball tournament?’”
The tournament earned coverage on the front page of the sports section in the daily Columbus Dispatch, “which for our school... is a big deal,” Bailey says.
“If you aren’t invited to the party, then have your own party, right?” columnist Bob Hunter writes on Torah Academy’s decision to form its own baseball tournament. “It only makes sense.”
“This is our March Madness,” Hunter quotes Bailey as saying, alluding to the informal name for college basketball’s annual championship tournament.
Hunter describes the challenges the day school faces in arranging a sports schedule without Friday night or Saturday-before-sundown games. Torah Academy usually faces other small religious schools such as Delaware Christian and Licking County Christian Academy. A baseball tournament of its own avoids these problems, Hunter explains. Torah Academy’s only worry at this point is the weather. “Shabbat doesn’t leave much flexibility for scheduling rainouts,” he says.
So far, God—and the skies—have smiled on the schedulers. There’s a waiting list for future editions of the Jewish World Series.
At the games, there are kosher snacks for sale in the stands; “HaTikvah” and “The Star Spangled Banner” play beforehand. And there are tailgate parties featuring picnicstyle socializing in the parking lot before the umpire yells “Play ball!”
The umpires, who are non-Jewish, are “amazed” by the players’ level of play and conduct, Coach Guinan says. “They feel the players are really respectful.” He calls the tournament a success, both on and off the field. The participating schools keep coming back, as do the fans.
Coach Guinan fondly recalls the “hundreds of people” at the Saturday night games. “The whole community is out at the fields watching the young leaders of the future play a beautiful game,” Bailey says. “It feels like a World Series game.”
Last year’s winner was Yeshiva Atlanta. The school took home the championship trophy following an incredible nine innings—two extra innings—7-5 gut-wrenching win over Kushner Academy of New Jersey, Coach Guinan says.
Coach Guinan describes the 2012 tournament’s atmosphere as, “four days of sunny skies, great community ruach [spirit] and fantastic baseball.”
What if standing-room-only crowds force Rabbi Kahn to walk several blocks to the JCC fields on Saturday night again this year?
“I don’t mind,” he says. “I hope I have to park farther away.”
In 2012, the rabbi says, he had the best of both worlds. “The crowds were bigger but not to the point that I had to walk much farther.”
“Each year,” Rabbi Kahn says, “the tournament grows in stature and popularity. We are expecting an even larger turnout in 2013 and are actively exploring new venues where we can accommodate more teams and larger crowds.” g
Keenan Sobol, from Columbus Torah Academy, on his way to a game.
Spring 5773/2013 JEWISH ACTION I 15
Visiting Houston a few months ago, at the start of the high school basketball season, I spent some time at the Robert M. Beren Hebrew Academy, the Modern Orthodox day school whose boys’ basketball team last year taught the nation about Shabbat.
After the Beren Stars, experiencing their best-ever, 23-5 season, qualified for the final round of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS) playoffs and faced the possibility of games scheduled on Friday night or Saturday afternoon, the team became a huge story.
The New York Times, Washington Post, ESPN sports network and Associated Press, in addition to sympathetic blanket coverage by the Houston Chronicle and local TV stations, briefly made Beren the most prominent Jewish educational institution in the country, and its team the biggest Jewish-sports story in recent memory.
Unlike Sandy Koufax, a largely secular Jew whose decision not to pitch on Yom Kippur in the 1965 World Series is legendary, these were frum kids; news reports showed teens in basketball uniforms with
Lessons from THE TEAM
That Wouldn’t Play on Shabbat
By Steve Lipman
highly visible kippot atop their heads.
In the end, after unfavorable publicity for TAPPS (its members are mostly Christian schools) and the threat of a lawsuit by a few Beren parents, the playoff schedule was changed. The Stars won their semifinal game on Friday afternoon but lost the final, by four points, on Saturday night after Shabbat.
The day I visited Beren, its front lobby showed no signs of all this. On the walls hung copies of letters students wrote to Israeli peers who had come under rocket fire from Gaza. Nearby, in a pair of small trophy cases, several awards won by Beren’s elementary school teams, mostly from years ago, were on display. But the Stars’
2011-12 TAPPS second-place trophy was missing. Where was it?
“I have no idea,” said Samantha Steinberg, Beren spokesperson. She asked the secretaries and some lay leaders. They also didn’t know, and didn’t much care.
“For us, it wasn’t about basketball,” Steinberg said.
For Beren Academy, the basketball playoffs, which became a week-long teachable moment, were an extension of the school’s mission, two lay leaders explained in a discussion of how the administration handled the situation.
“The goal going in was not about basketball,” said Dr. Riva Collins, Beren board president. The goal, said Rick Guttman, vice president of facilities, was to teach the meaning of Jewish principles. They—and in a separate discussion, Rabbi Avi Pollak, former Judaic studies principal who has since made aliyah—explained how Beren turned sports into a Kiddush Hashem:
Steve Lipman is a staff writer for the Jewish Week in New York.
They left the decision-making to the rabbis. Though Beren Academy, a small school (fewer than 300 total elementary and high school students), has an active parent body, the decision of the team’s schedule was entirely in the hands of the rabbinic administration.
They made clear their priorities Playing on Shabbat was never a possibility. Though some Orthodox athletes feel comfortable taking part in games or practices on Shabbat, walking long distances to the venue when necessary and not carrying equipment outside of an eruv, the school never considered this.
They invited a family discussion The administration sent regular e-mail messages to parents, making sure that everyone received the same information.
They protected the students’ interests With constant requests for interviews and access to the school, the administration closed some practices to the press and kept reporters out of classrooms and prayer services.
They kept Shabbat central. Beren turned the weekend of the final TAPPS playoffs in Dallas into a schoolwide Shabbaton Instead of accepting offers of home hospitality from Dallas’ Orthodox community, which would have kept players and the rest of the student body and their parents separate from each other, the school invited everyone to gather at a modest hotel several miles from the gym where the games were played.
Everyone—including some 150 supporters of the team—davened, ate and learned together. It was an “unforgettable, spiritual Shabbat,” Rabbi Pollak said.
A year later, Beren still sees and hears the results.
TAPPS has changed its scheduling policy “to provide the opportunity for all our member schools to participate.”
Non-Jews who meet members of the Beren family still congratulate them, saying, “You did the right thing.”
Seniors applying to college show more interest in choosing a school that has an established Jewish presence—kosher food, suitable worship services and a JLIC couple. (JLIC is the Orthodox Union’s Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus program.) And another Modern Orthodox day school whose basketball team had played bareheaded has decided that its boys will henceforth wear kippot on the court, Dr. Collins said.
If the Stars win a trophy this season, will that one find a place in the Beren Academy trophy case? Guttman shrugged. “Not important,” he said. g
The OHEL Milton and Molly Schulman Foster Care Program provides a range of continual support services to the foster child and foster parents. These include case management,
services, psychological services
medical care.
By Fayga Marks Inspiration
HOLDING AN M16, I PLACED A TANACH OVER IT AND CHOKED OUT THE WORDS:
I promise and commit to pledge allegiance to the State of Israel, its laws, and authorities, to accept upon myself unconditionally the authority of the Israel Defense Force, obey all the orders and instructions given by authorized commanders, devote all my energies, and even sacrifice my life for the protection of the homeland and liberty of Israel.
I quickly saluted my battalion commander and ran back in line. In that one moment, I fulfilled my lifelong dream of becoming a soldier in the IDF.
Photo: Israel Sun
THE COURAGE TO SERVE:
A Chareidi Woman in the IDF
eight-year-old girl, dressed for school in her light blue shirt and dark navy skirt, presses the elevator button as she hurries to school. When the elevator appears, she dashes inside and finds herself standing next to two Israeli soldiers with M16 rifles slung over their backs. The soldiers, sporting kippot, are her neighbor’s sons, who are heading back to the base after Shabbat. The little girl looks at them admiringly. She decides that one day she’s going to be just like them—a defender of the Jewish people.
That little girl was me.
Unbeknownst to my parents and to the religious community in which I lived, from that day onward, I dreamed of joining the IDF.
As I grew older, my commitment to enlist grew stronger. Despite the fact that a religious girl can claim an exemption, I knew where I was headed when the time came. When I discussed with my peers or teachers my plan to enlist, they thought I was crazy. Over and over, I was told that the army is no place for a frum girl.
When I turned seventeen, my official IDF draft notice arrived. I still remember my father telling me to go to the Rabbanut and get an exemption. It’s a simple process: appear at the Rabbanut office, declare yourself Orthodox and submit a form.
I had no intention of doing so.
Frum Girls Don’t Do That!
I recall entering the IDF draft office for a skills assessment exam. The army personnel were shocked to see a Chareidi girl interested in enlisting. One of the men administering the exam told me I was crazy and that I should apply for an exemption before it was too late.
I can’t say my parents were happy about my decision. My father and my teachers persisted in admonishing me: “The army is not a tzeniut environment”; “It’s not an appropriate place for a bat Yisrael”; “There’s a lot of male/female activity going on”; “Frum girls don’t do that!”; “You should go get married and stop worrying about such silliness.” There were concerns for my spiritual safety and concerns for my physical safety (“The army isn’t a safe place”). Of course, there were also concerns for my social status (“Who will marry you after you’ve been in the army?”). I listened politely, but my mind was made up: this girl was IDF bound.
While the IDF is comprised mostly of Jewish soldiers, I felt as if I were entering a foreign country. And for a Chareidi girl, it introduced challenges I never had to face before.
After induction, we were taken to the base. I joined hundreds of girls on the packed buses, all of whom were not sure what to expect from the journey on which we were about to embark. When it came time to receive our uniforms, I was handed a pair of tan pants. “Sorry,” I said, “but I can’t wear this. I’m religious.” Someone in uniform started yelling at me. I yelled back, “I’m not wearing something inappropriate; get me a long skirt!” I was sent off to a tailor who custom-designed a uniform skirt for me, even accommodating my request that it be ankle-length.
In my training battalion of 200 girls, I was the sole soldier wearing a skirt. But I learned something important early on in my army career: the army will accommodate your religious needs—if you stand up for your rights. To be a frum soldier in the IDF, you need a little chutzpah.
The training base, which was all female, was comprised of 800 young women. “What in the world are you doing here?” was a question I was constantly asked. There’s a misconception in Israel that Chareidim don’t serve.
While generally few soldiers see
Fayga Marks lives in Ramat Beit Shemesh with her family. You can reach her at ja@ou.org.
Chareidim serving, I learned later on that that’s because they serve mostly in segregated army programs that cater to their religious needs. The IDF offers religious tracks such as Nahal Haredi (battalion for Chareidi infantry soldiers) and Shachar Kachol (a program that trains Chareidim to be army technicians). Seeing bearded men with kippot or women with skirts and covered hair is not really that unusual, assuming you are looking in the right places. Nevertheless, the unjust notion that Chareidim don’t serve persists.
Basic Training
Basic training is meant to smack you in the face, to let you know you’re not at home anymore—you’re in the army. You get only get six hours to sleep and thirty minutes for the entire unit to shower and get dressed.
Time for davening is available but regimented. While every soldier has a right to attend davening, not every commander understands why a female soldier would want to go. (Though I may not have a chiyuv, a halachic obligation, to pray, in such a religiously challenging environment my siddur served as a spiritual lifeline.)
Naturally, I was confronted with halachic questions all the time: “Does an army base security perimeter [fence] qualify as an eruv?” “Can one carry an empty gun on Shabbat?” I posed the latter question to the rabbi on the base who ruled that it was not permitted; thus, I had an official exemption from carrying my rifle on Shabbat. (A major part of gun training in the IDF is safety training. You are never permitted to let your gun out of your sight. You don’t put it down, you don’t step away from it. You sleep with it under your pillow; you hand it to a friend to hold while showering. Your weapon is never out of
your possession.) My unit-mates were jealous of my Shabbat rifle exemption.
Tzeniut was another challenge. Even though I was in an all-female environment, basic modesty was sorely lacking. There were no doors or curtains on the shower stalls, and everyone would dress together. I would sneak out of the barrack at 3 AM to shower and dress privately, getting back in time for wake-up already dressed for the day.
I also wasn’t certain about the standards of the kosher supervision on the base. (All army-base kitchens are considered kosher, but not all are glatt kosher. Furthermore, the kitchen staff are not known for their scrupulous observance of kashrut laws.) On my base, mehadrin supervision was only available on select days for the Shachar Kachol soldiers. I implored the commanders to make such supervision available on the base at all times; unfortunately, my request was not granted. For the most part, I subsisted on fruits and vegetables—not an easy task when soldiers are required to fill and empty their plates at every meal.
My fellow soldiers noticed that I wasn’t eating most of the food being served, which triggered interesting discussions. They didn’t understand. Many didn’t even know what kosher meant! Sure, they knew no mixing milk and meat, but why wouldn’t I eat the food from the army kitchen?
I was the first Chareidi woman many of the soldiers had ever met, which forced them to let go of some of the misconceptions they had about the Chareidi world. Here I was, a Chareidi woman, very similar to themselves. We were all part of the same training battalion, all going through the same army experience together.
Fayga Marks, from a Chareidi neighborhood in Ramat Beit Shemesh, fulfilled her childhood dream of being a soldier in the IDF.
Photo courtesy of Fayga Marks
Shabbat on the Base
My draft occurred in early September. I was allowed to go home for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, but my first Shabbat on the base also happened to be Sukkot. Sukkot is a big yom tov in my family. We have a large wooden sukkah which my sisters and I decorate. We have delicious traditional yom tov meals and spend a lot of time in the family sukkah.
That first yom tov on the base was very difficult. There was no sukkah for the female soldiers, no lulav and etrog, not even Class A uniforms! (Class A uniforms, regarded as “dressy clothes,” are generally worn on Shabbat, when a soldier is not on duty.)
All around me was chillul Shabbat: smoking, cell phones, guns, money. I had never been immersed in such an environment on Shabbat. It hurt me badly to see these Jewish girls unaware that they were trampling all over Shabbat.
I have to admit that I felt sorry for myself: no family, no seudah with songs and divrei Torah, no shul, no visiting friends—I was all alone. It took time, but once I got used to Shabbat on the base, it became easier, and even enjoyable.
Arriving for Kitchen Duty
Once basic training is over, there is an official swearing-in ceremony. It’s an important event attended by high-level officers and soldiers’ families. Prior to the event, I explained to my lieutenant that I wouldn’t be able to swear. She brushed me off and I wasn’t sure what her response would be when my turn came. When my name was called, I quickly blurted “I promise” instead of “I swear”; she smiled and saluted. Afterward, she privately told me that she was proud of me for standing up for what I believe in.
I was assigned to an air force base in the support and service battalion, specifically food service. Ironically, I left my parents’ home and their busy kitchen only to end up in an army kitchen preparing meals for close to 6,000 soldiers! But helping to run such a massive food operation (cutting thousands of pieces of shnitzel and frying them for five consecutive hours!) and assisting in feeding air force pilots who are responsible for bombing terrorists made me feel part of a very special team.
The first morning on my new base, I awoke to the sound of a siren blaring. I jumped out of bed and ran to the shelter, my heart pounding. I’m just starting my service and our enemies are trying to kill me! I thought. After waiting the allotted time, I went to my work station and mentioned the siren to my new commander. Somewhat puzzled, she said, “The siren blares every morning. Didn’t you hear them say there would be a siren wake-up call?” We each laughed and became good friends after that.
I learned that I had to consciously invest in my Yiddishkeit while immersed in the secular environment of the army. I created a learning schedule and made a point of going to shul and shiurim when I had free time. Being as I was now on a large air force base, there was a staff rabbi and synagogue. When on base for Shabbat, I joined the base rabbi and rebbetzin for Shabbat meals, which meant trekking quite a distance!
When I first arrived for kitchen duty, the head mashgiach was thrilled. Since I was frum, I could oversee the mehadrin food preparation. This enabled him to use the mashgiach on staff to supervise other areas of the kitchen, thereby raising the overall level of kosher supervision on the base.
That, however, didn’t relieve me of my other kitchen duties in the non-glatt kosher kitchen where I generally worked. The majority of the soldiers in the kitchen were young men, making for a somewhat uncomfortable situation. But there were always surprises. Some of them began showing up wearing kippot on Shabbat; others asked frequent questions about keeping kosher. We had many discussions covering a range of topics: hair covering for married women, tefillin (my father couldn’t understand why I insisted on interrogating him about the details of tefillin one Shabbat) and tensions between the religious and nonreligious segments of Israeli society.
A Druze soldier was assigned as a kitchen commander. Apparently he had been required to take a number of classes on kashrut He knew about bishul akum, and whenever the mashgiach wasn’t in the immediate area, he would call me over to turn on the fire. He was very scrupulous about kashrut and made sure all the laws were strictly adhered to by the staff.
“Harabbanit”
My religiosity did pose problems for some of the irreligious soldiers. At times, my roommates wanted to allow male soldiers in the room (which isn’t allowed according to army regulations,
but happens anyway). Thankfully, my roommates were respectful and tried to give me as much space as possible. However, I did feel lonely at times. I was excluded from many social events because I was religious and therefore perceived as different.
At some point in my service, a young woman joined the base who had formerly been religious but had gone off the derech a few years earlier. Bat Tzion and I became very close friends and eventually roommates. It was great having a roommate who wasn’t put off by me or my lifestyle. I thanked Hashem every day that Bat Tzion came along.
I quickly found myself in the strange situation of being the representative of Judaism in my battalion. I earned the nickname “harabbanit” (rebbetzin) for wearing a long skirt and being shomer negiah (avoiding physical contact with members of the opposite gender). It was strange being an eighteen-year-old rebbetzin. My fellow soldiers would always pepper me with religious questions. Some sought me out for advice because “religious people have wisdom.” A few of the questions regarding boyfriends and familial issues I wasn’t prepared to deal with, so I would call my rav or former teachers for advice.
Fast days and minor holidays were the most-asked-about topics, as some of my fellow soldiers had no idea why we commemorate them. One night a bunkmate asked me to tell her a story. It was Adar, so I told her the story of the Megillah. Even though she was twenty- two years old, she had never heard the story of Purim before. All she knew was that Purim was a holiday of
partying and drinking—and this in Israel! I was shocked.
I am not the type of person who tries to convince people to put on tefillin or light Shabbat candles. Nevertheless, I feel that I made a true Kiddush Hashem during my two years of army service. Some members of my unit would try to keep Shabbat with me to see what it is like. One of my fellow soldiers was grappling with going to shul every day and putting on tefillin; the commanders would give him a hard time. He tended to give in, rather than confront them. A few weeks after my arrival on the base, he came over to thank me. He said, “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have the courage to stand up for my religious rights like you do.”
I had in-depth conversations with many soldiers on the base. A few started attending shiurim on base and even tried to keep Shabbat. I saw many soldiers around me take on certain mitzvot and express interest in learning more about Yiddishkeit In fact, one female soldier, whom I grew close to, is today shomeret Shabbat and mitzvot. I didn’t actively try to change anyone, but my very presence opened up a door for many who were genuinely seeking. Since I was discharged over a year ago, I haven’t gotten used to being back in Chareidi society. I never truly fit in here. In the army, I felt I had found a place, a purpose. I gained a lot from being in a secular society and having to defend my religious lifestyle. I don’t know how many people can do that. But I did it because of my dream to serve; I did it for my people and my country. g
Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
HURRICANE SANDY A SPIRITUAL RESPONSE
AS TOLD TO BAYLA SHEVA BRENNER
Photos by Yisrael Jerome Bethea, unless indicated otherwise
VOICES FROM THE STORM
RABBI DR. CHAIM WAKSLAK
Rav of the Young Israel of Long Beach, New York
My wife and I decided to stay in Long Beach and not evacuate for Hurricane Sandy. In time, it became progressively clear that this was an extremely serious and unprecedented situation. We looked out the window and saw a river flowing down the street. With each passing moment, the water rose higher and higher. At one point I saw cars, debris and parts of the boardwalk floating in front of my eyes. The house went dark. Then the heat turned off. We stood there looking at each other as this terrible calamity unfolded before our eyes.
By morning the water had receded. I got into the car and drove to the shul, just one block away from the ocean.
The sidewalks were covered with sand, and cars were strewn all about; there were broken trees and debris ripped off from buildings. I was terrified of what I would find at the shul. To my great surprise, although there was no light or heat, the shul was untouched. It was absolutely dry.
It was time to daven Shacharit. People started to trickle in. Everyone was shell-shocked. Many people had the doors of their homes pushed in by the force of the water and their homes had extensive flooding. People couldn’t start their cars; the saltwater infiltrated the motors. That Tuesday morning, we stood around in the dark, but we had a minyan. I made a promise to myself that since the shul had been spared any significant damage, we would see to it not to miss a minyan.
We decided to keep the shul open
all day in order to establish a central location where people could come and get whatever they needed. It didn’t matter which shul an individual belonged to, or how affiliated he or she was—everyone found a haven in the Young Israel. That sense of community went a long way in dealing with the emotional trauma.
There wasn’t a home in Long Beach that wasn’t affected. The saltwater destroyed everything in its wake—appliances, furniture, carpeting, boilers, heating systems, electrical systems, et cetera. A local kosher butcher store as well as a bagel shop were totally destroyed. Merchants were severely impacted. The numerous large condominiums on the oceanfront were also devastated. The elderly and people with disabilities who live there, many of whom are members of the shul, were left stranded. I sent a team of volunteers to knock on doors and check on people. We found one man shivering and hungry, alone without power or food. We brought him to the shul. The area looked like a war zone. Some people were just wandering around dazed and lost.
My role was to establish a sense of community. Everyone came together— to eat, to daven or to socialize after minyan; people bonded. The Gemara tells us that “tzarus rabimchatzi nechamah.” When you suffer collectively, that in and of itself serves as a consolation.
The first Shabbat we must have had forty to fifty men in shul. There was no light, no heat; we had a generator and three or four lamps. Shabbat provided its own light and it brought warmth and comfort. There was singing and dancing and it lifted everyone’s spirits. We all ate the Friday night meal together in shul; it was like being in Noach’s Ark. The Ark was referred to as a beit midrash of chesed because from morning to night Noach was involved in acts of chesed On Shabbat
day, we had a magnificent kiddush, sponsored by Brooklyn’s Pomegranate supermarket, caterer Michael Schick and the Lawrence supermarket Brach’s. New friendships were forged. It didn’t matter if one usually davened in a different shul or who got an aliyah—all of the things that usually separate us no longer mattered. We were all in this together, supportive of one another. In any community there’s a certain competitiveness between shuls and organizations. All of that fell to the wayside.
On Shabbat afternoon, I thought it would be therapeutic to ask the people present to share their thoughts and feelings. They just kept expressing their gratitude. “Thank you,” they said. “We are so grateful that we have a community; others have to fend for themselves, they have to go to shelters. We are so thankful that not only do we have what we need, we feel like one big family.”
People volunteered; no one looked
Sheimos washed up on the beach in Seagate.
Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communications and Marketing Department.
for payment. One Sunday, over 500 people arrived from Teaneck, West Hempstead, Queens, Manhattan and Boston to help clean out homes. Members of Congregation Orach Chaim of Manhattan arrived with four SUVs filled with supplies. We emptied them out in the dark by candlelight: clothing, blankets, candles, flashlights, batteries, food supplies, paper goods, tablecloths, garbage bags—volunteers had gone to Costco and bought all of these items in bulk. James Lassner, president of Orach Chaim, said, “Rabbi, we want to adopt your shul as a sister congregation; whatever you need—money, anything— just call on us.” He was true to his word.
Orach Chaim’s volunteers came to clean out basements and debris. We then had a dinner in the shul followed by a concert they organized, led by their chazzan. We invited everyone to come relax and enjoy.
Will there be lasting changes? People are still struggling to get their lives in order. But I know that I’ve changed. I’m more sensitive to others’ needs. I saw people who really gave of themselves, despite their own difficulties. There was a cadre of men and women who set up and served meals and cleaned debris for hours. It was something beautiful to behold.
CHASKEL BENNETT
New York-based community activist
The various communities’ chesed organizations were dealing with a crisis that none of them had ever dealt with before. They brought in emergency crews, volunteers to clean out houses and emergency pumps to rid basements of water; they removed sheimos from damaged shuls and did whatever they could to minimize the damage to people’s homes. A Flatbush-based organization filled a twenty-four-foot truck with food and
JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
clothing in less than four hours.
This was all done by volunteers and grassroots community organizations that, baruch Hashem,Klal Yisrael is fortunate to have—Achiezer, Chasdei Lev, Hatzalah, local food establishments and many more. We recognized the need and everyone jumped into action.
Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshuv in Lawrence, New York, turned into a soup kitchen and a clothing warehouse on par with Burlington Coat Factory. They allowed their yeshivah to become Ground Zero for relief services.
Borough Park Shomrim set up a temporary command center in Seagate—a trailer with a massive ninethousand-pound generator that ran 24/7. It became a place to organize the food donations, the volunteers and the emergency services in a community that was hit very hard. All of the homes suffered substantial damage to the basements, which meant they lacked hot water, heat, boilers and electricity. Seagate, which is a gated community, has no stores in the local area. Because so many people lost cars, they had no way to leave the community and purchase supplies. The first Shabbos after the storm, those left in Seagate— more than sixty people—had absolutely no food. Volunteers organized themselves and brought food donated from several establishments in Flatbush. They arrived in Seagate before Shabbos and dropped off food.
One Sunday, a massive relief effort took place in Seagate. Some 500 volunteers came, including four busloads from Baltimore and scores of people from across New York—mostly from Flatbush, Queens, Borough Park and Williamsburg—together with Misaskim, who brought electric pumps to pump out homes. We cleaned out 150 homes and shuls; a tractor-trailer filled with sheimos was removed from the Five Towns, Far Rockaway and Seagate. Community activists and benefactors are working to rebuild the Seagate community. Their goal is to install new water tanks, water heaters, boilers and
electric panels into all of the homes.
In my twenty years as a Hatzalah member, I’ve seen a lot. But I’ve never seen such unity in my entire career.
People were thinking out-of-the-box for ways to help each other. I know someone who rented a cholov Yisrael ice-cream truck and drove around the streets of Far Rockaway just to make the kids happy. Another individual showed up at Sh’or Yoshuv on a cold Sunday night while there were still no lights in the area. He opened the trunk of his car, took out a gigantic urn with hot water and a cooler with milk, and began offering people free coffee. That’s someone stepping up.
Groups of people came to Seagate— hundreds—to help clean up. They didn’t know any of these people; it just didn’t matter.
LEIBEL LEDERMAN
Resident of Seagate
Our home is right on the bay. We’ve had many hurricanes over the years, but we never had any real problems. So when they predicted that Sandy would be one of the worst storms ever, we took it with a grain of salt.
At about 8:00 PM, we looked out the window and saw the streets filling up with water. We knew it wasn’t rainwater; there was hardly any rain.
Seagate is surrounded on three sides by water—the bay on the west, the ocean on the south and on the north, and there’s a canal running toward the end of Seagate. The water was coming in from all three sides, quickly filling up the streets. Once the street had about three feet of water, I began getting nervous. The first level of the house, where we were staying, is about four feet above street level. I didn’t think the water would rise any higher. Then suddenly we heard an explosion. The front and back doors to the basement came
crashing in; the pressure was too much for the doors to withstand—it tore them off their hinges. We heard water gushing in.
The heat went off; the electricity went off; the hot water went off—we were in pitch darkness. We slept that night on the upper floor. In the morning we looked out the window; outside was a disaster. There was still at least a foot-and-a-half of water in the street. Cars had been moved hundreds of feet from their parking spaces, trees were down, roads were impassable and we didn’t have any working vehicles. We stayed in the house without heat, hot water and electricity for another two days. On Wednesday evening, when the roads were passable, my son who lives in Flatbush picked us up with a fourwheel drive.
The first few days there was looting and then the Borough Park Shomrim came in and set up a command center. The rebuilding is just beginning. The families who can’t afford new heating and electrical systems remain homeless and are staying in other people’s homes.
We formed a vaad and committed ourselves to raise enough money to take care of everyone in the community who needs help. Other benefactors arranged for professionals to assess all of the homes in Seagate before they begin renovations and treat basements for mold—a costly project. They also are providing free washers and dryers, including the cost of hooking them up, to anyone who needs it.
People are still dejected, no question about it. Some of those with smaller homes don’t have enough room to live in; they need their basements for living quarters. Right now, Seagate is more vulnerable to destruction. On Atlantic Avenue, which faces the ocean, most of the bulkheads (barriers) were ripped apart. If your home is on the level of the ocean and there is no bulkhead, every time the tide rises you’re going to have water coming in. Only the few bulkheads made of steel survived. The others, made of wood or concrete, are gone.
Rav of Chofetz Chaim Torah Center, Cedarhurst, New York
Iwas in Israel for a family simchah when my phone rang. It was one of the ba’alei batim from the shul. I couldn’t understand why he would be calling me at that hour (it was 3:00 AM in the States). On the other end of the line was a person who is usually in control; he was absolutely hysterical. He told me he just watched his home get destroyed.
RABBI ARYEH ZEV GINZBERG
Five feet of water came into his basement, which had held a business. He ran outside to get his cars and saw them wash away.
No one expected this kind of devastation.
Calls, e-mails and texts kept pouring in. I spent the next sixteen hours on the phone and computer trying to ensure that those who were unaffected opened their homes to those who were displaced. One family in our shul hosted fifty people over Shabbos; another had several families living in their home—thirteen children and seven adults. They slept in the living room, den—wherever there was available space.
The next morning in shul, a Holocaust survivor who had made aliyah a few years earlier told me he had lived in Borough Park his entire life. When
I was getting call after call from people asking what the sages in Israel were saying about the hurricane. I spoke with Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman. (His gabbai told me that the rav had received 200 phone calls in an hour from people all over asking for eitzos, advice.) The rav told me, “Tell them that Hashem is trying to get their attention.” We live our lives as Orthodox Jews and believe in Hashem, but at the end of the day, we think we control our lives.
We don’t have prophets today to tell us why things happen. We can’t point a finger and say, “this is why.” What we needed to do was gather all our resources, be united, and make sure we were there to give to those who were in need. The focus needed to be on recovery, healing and making sure everyone had what they needed.
he made aliyah, his children warned him that living in Israel wasn’t safe, with the terrorism, the dangers of Iran and the potential for war. They constantly urged him and his wife to return to the States. He said he has a daughter who lives in Seagate, a son in Long Beach and another son in Lawrence. All of them were now homeless.
Sh’or Yoshuv’s gym became a clothing drop-off center. A clothing company donated 2,000 winter coats for men; another dropped off 300 pairs of women’s shoes. There were more clothes on racks there than at a Macy’s store.
A manufacturer dropped off a few hundred cases of diapers. While they were unloading, another truck showed
up from Rochester, New York, with supplies, clothes and food. Once that truck left, another one arrived from Boston; still another from Chicago. Food distribution was organized at the yeshivah and hot meals were provided three times a day. On Friday afternoon, huge boxes with challos, wine, fish and chicken showed up at the yeshivah. Gourmet Glatt, a supermarket in the Five Towns, donated hundreds of portions of chicken. I saw some of the wealthiest, most prominent people in the community wearing aprons and serving food. The chesed that was going on was unreal.
On Sunday, over 100 volunteers from Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim in Queens arrived wearing overalls, face masks and gloves and went into homes to clean out basements. One of the yeshivah boys told me that twenty boys came back to Queens with filth and mud all over their clothes. They stopped off at a local shul to daven Maariv. One of them went over to the rav and said, “We are so dirty and are not dressed properly for shul; would you mind if we set up a minyan amongst ourselves in the hall?”
The rav replied, “You boys should come into shul and sit in the mizrach vant, in the front; people who went out to help fellow Jews and did backbreaking work—you’re not an embarrassment; you’re a pride and joy.”
DR. HYLTON LIGHTMAN
Pediatrician in the Five Towns and Far Rockaway
Although my office and home are in Zone A, which had mandatory evacuation, I decided to stay. Anticipating the medical needs in the community, I was concerned and wanted to work with Hatzalah to make sure our community was medically sound. Also, we have some elderly neighbors who were relying on us.
Shomrim command center in Seagate.
Before the storm, my wife and I took out the office’s computer server and we placed it, together with our vaccine inventory which requires refrigeration, in a location with an industrial-strength generator. We have been using EMR (electronic medical records) since 1997; it stores invaluable and irreplaceable information about people’s lives. I also brought basic medical supplies to our home. When we returned Tuesday morning after the storm, we were shocked to see that the water line outside the entrance was above the doorknob. Exploring the office, we found that the flood water, together with sewage, had risen to over five feet in the office before receding, destroying all medical equipment, including exam tables, cabinets and the remaining medical supplies. I opened a drawer about two feet off the ground and, to my amazement, water and sewage poured out. The office had to be totally gutted.
Devastation was ubiquitous throughout Far Rockaway and the Five Towns—homes destroyed, cars totaled, all compounded by no heat or electricity for two weeks. People did not know how or where to begin picking up the pieces and moving on. Yet there were plenty of medical needs and they needed to be tended to. Immediately, I began seeing patients in my home. My children held candles and flashlights until a generator was secured. My kids also made sure that every child left our home with a lollipop.
We were searching for temporary office space while our office was being rebuilt when Chaim Leibtag, president of the White Shul, Congregation Kneseth Israel, an OU shul in Far Rockaway, graciously offered us space in the shul. Our IT people wired the room so we could install telephone wires and computers. We set up cubicles, including five for examining patients, one for a lab and another for a reception area. Within seventy–two hours of Mr. Leibtag’s offer, we were fully operational. Having trained and practiced medicine in South Africa, including serving two years in the South African Army, I’ve worked under less-than-ideal circumstances: I performed appendectomies in huts and delivered babies in the African bush. So, for me, this was a vast improvement. Interestingly, word spread and two major New York metropolitan area teaching hospitals have done site visits to learn from us how to plan for future disasters. Since Hurricane Sandy passed through, I’m seeing patients with unusual coughs and rashes. People of all ages were exposed to a plethora of toxic fumes and mold. In addition to the mold exposure and other airborne germs, there are psychological issues. Upheaval can wear down one’s immune system. The children were out of school, had no routine and no consistency. Some children continue to suffer from nightmares and anxiety and talk about death and dying.
Hashem sent a disaster that we did not choose. However, we chose our reactions and there were many “high” moments due to Sandy, specifically, the achdus of Klal Yisrael. Jews from all over the world banded together to help Far Rockaway, the Five Towns, Belle Harbor, Long Beach, Oceanside, Seagate and other communities affected by the storm. Is there any greater nachas for HaKodosh Baruch Hu than to see His children as one big family?
LEAH LIGHTMAN
Wife of Dr. Hylton Lightman
My alma mater, the Maimonides School in Brookline, Massachusetts, sent out an e-mail to all alumni that a busload of Maimonides high school students would be traveling to an area ravaged by Sandy to help with the storm cleanup. I called the school and offered to host the students for dinner. Even with a second loss of power that erev Shabbos, I was nonetheless determined to feed these kids who cared enough to leave their comfortable homes and travel via bus over four hours each way to help storm victims in Long Beach. A call to Carlos & Gabby’s, a restaurant in Cedarhurst, and we were ready.
While the teens ate dinner in my home, I told them, “When you go away
to college and go out into the ‘real’ world, you will be exposed to many challenges. Yet always remember today and that what you’ve done connects you to a mesorah that dates back to Har Sinai, which has continued, uninterrupted, despite countless vicissitudes. Take pride in being Jewish! Remember what we say every Shabbosat Minchah and in Mussaf on Yom Kippur: ‘Mi kiamcha Yisrael?’ You are part of the Jewish brotherhood—whereby we all help each other and do for one another. The hallmark of a Jew is to always be involved in chesed and that’s what you’ve done today. Walk as proud Jews at all times.”
I think these kids saw that they are tethered to something so beautiful and timeless and so much greater than they ever realized.
RABBI ELIEZER FEUER
Rav of Young Israel of Wavecrest and Bayswater
Before the storm, we cleaned our gutters, made sure our sump pumps were working and bought a few days’ supply of food. By 6:00 on Monday night, it started getting nasty outside; trees were falling. By 8:00, the transformers were popping. Then everything went dark. My heroic neighbor ran out in the middle of the
storm and got a generator so my family was able to have a little light. We pulled an extension cord for another neighbor. The high tide came in around 8:30. My neighbor ran over to tell me that the Agudath Israel of Bayswater was totally submerged in water.
When things calmed down, I went with one of my ba’alei batim to survey the damage. There was no power. We couldn’t get through most streets because the water was so deep. Blocks of Bayswater were now just part of the bay. In many of the basement apartments, the waterline reached the mezuzot. Everybody mobilized; we had more than seventy-five volunteers. We were concerned about looting, so we shut down all of Bayswater and Far Rockaway. You couldn’t go a block without seeing two men in a car with amber lights. Once we had round-the-clock security in order, we began the relief effort. We purchased pumps and generators and began pumping people’s basements.
My shul turned into a command center with a shelter on the third floor. Half of our main sanctuary functioned as a clothing drop-off and the other half as a dining room. Our kitchen served three meals a day from eight in the morning until two in the morning— thousands of meals a day. Some people were in charge of the kitchen, others were part of the cleaning crew and still others functioned as waiters. We or-
The “Parrot Rebbe” entertaining children of Bayswater at a free carnival organized by the Baltimore community.
ganized concerts and arranged for speakers to give chizuk We hooked up Wi-Fi for people who needed it for work. We ran a veritable day camp, with children’s programs and arts and crafts. A busload of volunteers from Baltimore arrived to organize a community-wide carnival. The message was clear: this shul is your home; move in. You’ll get food, warmth, music and camaraderie. We’re going to come out of this better and stronger.
We got the White Shul in Far Rockaway running with generators to create a similar situation there. It was a big Kiddush Hashem Non-Jews were thanking us; some of their neighbors were waiting on line for hours for a bottle of water while we were serving them gourmet meals.
We heard that Belle Harbor was totally destroyed. The new rav of a shul there, Ohab Zedek, didn’t know where to turn. We drove over with pumps and brought three sifrei Torah up from the basement; they were ruined. Together with volunteers from Flatbush, we saved the other sifrei Torah and found pairs of tefillin. We pumped out water from the shul and from more than 150 homes in Belle Harbor.
Gasoline was scarce so we asked for volunteers to bring gas from Connecticut and New Jersey. People from Lakewood sent thousands of gallons of gasoline. Volunteers brought in drums with pumps; we had a mini gas station here.
Volunteers from Kiryas Joel in Monroe, New York, drove in with a fire truck to assess the situation and hooked up generators. The RV command center from Monroe came and stayed for over a week. The rebbe of New Square also sent a team of electricians with generators; they worked together with the Satmar volunteers to hook up generator after generator and fill each with gasoline.
We found a treasure of unity. The Satmar, Lubavitch, Skver, Lakewood, Monsey, Teaneck, Modern Orthodox, Yeshivish and Chassidic communities—Jews from across the spectrum —put aside their differences and worked together in harmony. It was like the Chashmonaim during the time of Chanukah—a few people stood up against the ferocious storm called Sandy and said we’re going to rebuild together. It was a nisayon, and I think we passed with flying colors.
Ultimately, our power is our unity. It’s not about alarm systems or bulkheads—the waters washed right through them. We realized who we truly are. Everyone was loving and helping one another; it was so fantastic. I believe it is my responsibility to tell people this story, to preserve the lesson we learned from this hurricane. Megillat Esther was written down so that the story would be remembered forever. I want to write Megillat Sandy.
TANIA HAMMER
Resident of Bayswater
My house and my block were unaffected by Sandy; I was fortunate. I can’t say the same for my friends.
I opened a shelter for women and children in my boss’s Shabbos home in Bayswater, which was connected to a shul’s generator. My boss and his wife opened up their home to total strangers—an altruistic act of kindness—and asked me to be the “screener.” About thirty very grateful women stayed at the shelter. One had a newborn and her apartment was freezing. One of the women had been living in her car with her family and had nowhere to go. Their husbands stayed at the
1,000 people per day. At the shul, lawyers and doctors were sweeping floors and waiting tables; it was amazing to see. A lot of people couldn’t go to work because of the gas shortage, so they came to volunteer. Everyone found a job to do.
The atmosphere was so pumped up and charged with positivity—we were all working together. Every night volunteers from Williamsburg came to the command center with kugels and other hot dishes. The first morning they came, they saw the shul kitchen was empty; we were just starting to get our act together to open a soup kitchen. They started chopping vegetables and made soup. More volunteers from Williamsburg came with breakfast supplies. Nobody asked them to do this. They just came, saw what was needed and took care of it.
Every morning fresh bread arrived from a bakery, donated. A couple from Borough Park in with both of their laden with new pilblankets and towels. received paper goods, goods, noodles, oil of cleaning supplies someone in Monsey. Antook it upon themevery home, assess the
damage and recruit volunteers to help clean the debris.
The olam must know about the goodness and kindness of our people. I have never been so touched by humanity as I was then, and continue to be. If it takes a hurricane, then so be it; may we never be tested again.
Everyone who possibly could rolled up his or her sleeves and helped in some way—I saw it all. A little girl from Stamford, Connecticut, emptied her piggy bank containing all her savings for a new iPod and insisted that her money go to Bayswater’s relief fund after she heard her rabbi speak about it in shul. Her mother drove three hours each way to present her little girl’s donation.
I went to Belle Harbor and Breezy Point with my mother, who was visiting from Australia, to see the aftermath of Sandy. Two weeks after Sandy, people’s cars were mangled, their belongings and everything they held dear were curbside. Belle Harbor, as much as it was destroyed, still had people living there. Breezy Point, however, was empty. National Guard soldiers were everywhere and they worked with volunteers to clean up the silent devastation.
Driving down the beach of the mile-long peninsula, we saw unspeak-
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, New Jersey NCSY worked with NECHAMA, the Jewish Response to Disaster, to provide food and cleanup services to afflicted areas. New Jersey NCSY developed a relationship with local officials in Hoboken, a city that suffered severe flooding and damage during the storm. When Rabbi Yaakov Glasser, regional director of New Jersey NCSY, suggested running a carnival for the area as the kickoff event to New Jersey NCSY’s annual Winter Regional Convention, Hoboken officials were delighted with the idea. The carnival, sponsored by New Jersey NCSY, was staffed entirely by New Jersey NCSYers. Games, clowns, magicians, manicures, balloons, face painting and more brought smiles to everyone’s faces.
Photo: Liz Ligon
able wreckage; it was too much to take in, seeing so many people’s belongings washed away. There was a couple walking by. I asked them how they were doing and the woman grew teary. “That’s my house,” she said, and pointed to a roof on the sand—just a roof. She said she came to see what the restoration center was giving out today; they were in short supply of diapers and wipes and baby things. She was carrying a bag with two diapers and a few wipes in a Ziploc bag. “That’s what they gave you?” I asked her, incredulous. “They have to limit the amount they give out; everyone needs things,” she replied.
It was my turn to tear up. Two diapers? I told her I have a stockpile of diapers in my house for post-hurricane survivors and gave her my address so that she could come pick up a box of diapers, wipes, formula and baby food. The look in her eyes said so much.
When she came, I showed her the Bayswater command center: the kitchen that was open 24/7 for everyone, what was left of the clothing gemach and the dining room that fed thousands every day, and of course, my women’s shelter/five-star hotel. We went to Sh’or Yoshuv to pick up some food and she was amazed at the chesed of our community. People walked out with boxes of diapers, wipes, shampoos, soaps, new and gently-used clothing, sheets and blankets—all free for the taking with a kind word of encouragement from the volunteers.
I showed her different postings online of all the new gemachs and offers of warm showers and power-ups to complete strangers; the list of kind acts is endless.
How do we make this chesed and achdus last? How can Klal Yisrael be renowned for its kindness in good times as well? Let’s start by being respectful to each other. Let people pass when you’re driving; show some common courtesy. Let’s smile at each other more; show gratitude. Say more “pleases” and “thank yous.” It’s all so important.
RABBI JONATHAN ACKERMAN
Associate regional director of New York NCSY
After the hurricane, the entire NCSY staff, along with our team leaders, advisors and regional board teens, chose different communities to rally around. Teens from Westchester, Long Island and Manhattan traveled to Far Rockaway, Long Island, Oceanside, Long Beach, Seagate and Brooklyn communities. These kids set aside their normal lives to work for others. They brought clothing, boots, flashlights, batteries and toys for
the kids. They spent hours schlepping boxes, unloading trucks, doing whatever was needed.
We had our staff working aroundthe-clock organizing rides for relief efforts; we were trying to keep up with the kids’ desire to help. I drove back and forth multiple times—despite the gas shortage—from Westchester to Long Island, from Long Island to Brooklyn, from Brooklyn back to Westchester. There was a teen from one of our Westchester programs who started coming to NCSY events because her mother forced her to. She was one of the first to say, “Let’s do this!” And she brought her friends.
We had public school kids with little or no Jewish background and kids who were in a Hebrew high school working with Chassidim from Borough Park; I had never seen anything like it.
The kids really rose to the occasion. Members of every single group of teen volunteers said it was the most meaningful thing they had ever done.
These teens saw firsthand hundreds of Jews from all walks of life outfitted with gloves and masks going into strangers’ homes to scrub their basements. I don’t think they realized this existed. It changed their perspective in a way that we could not have with any ordinary NCSY program. They’re now wondering what is it about the Jewish people that no matter what, when the stakes are high, in a time of true need, we are there for one another.
HANNAH ASH
Sixteen-year-old NCSYer from Teaneck, New Jersey and student at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls
The hurricane was something so powerful, so awe-inspiring and so tragic, I knew I had to do something to help.
I cleaned out someone’s basement in Seagate. I was pawing through someone’s stuff that was now trash, covered in disgusting grime and muck. Everything was off the shelves, piled on the floor, covered in sewerage and water. A man told me he had to throw out his grandfather’s Shas from Europe. It’s so unfortunate; so many memories, pictures, videos—ruined. I tried to treat all of the destroyed possessions with care.
All these people were standing outside talking about their homes and stores; people were trying to accept the damage and move on. [They’d say], “All this pain had to be for a reason; it came from Hashem. We need to clean up and move on.” They were trying to sound brave, but you could sense that if someone said the wrong thing, they would break down.
There’s something about the connection between one Jew and another. People in the community said, “I can’t believe so many came to help me. Go
to this person, he needs help, she needs help.”It was really one house after the other. I felt exhausted, but also very fulfilled.
ZAHAVA FARBMAN
Resident of Woodmere and associate director of the Chai Lifeline Crisis Intervention and Bereavement Department
There were only two blocks in the entire Five Towns that didn’t lose power. Ours was one of them. We saw the chesed that Hashem bestowed upon my family. It wasn’t even a question; of course we welcomed people in.
We had eight families in and out of the house. Some were friends, friends of friends; others came through Achiezer and Chai Lifeline. A family from Far Rockaway lost everything. All my kids relocated to my room; we fit everyone in.
A woman called the twenty-fourhour helpline set up by Chai Lifeline and Achiezer and said, “I have a friend who has no power and her boiler is down. She has cancer and is having major surgery on Tuesday; she has nowhere to go.” I was able to be there for her.
Others came to charge batteries or work from our home. I told the people at Achiezer that I have a wheelchairaccessible guestroom and bathroom and they asked if I would take in a family whose son is in a wheelchair; we put a temporary ramp by our front steps. On Shabbos, we had people from all over—Far Rockaway, Cedarhurst, Lawrence—forty people around our table. It was a tremendous privilege to host these people.
Our shul, Aish Kodesh, was the only shul in the area with power that Shabbos. At the minyan, there were hundreds of people from all the surrounding communities that didn’t have power.
The women staying in our home spoke about how they wanted to come
Piles of clothing to be distributed to hurricane victims.
out of this changed people to grow from it. We started a weekly conference call where we would learn a sefer on middos; we are keeping the special connection we made during this time of crisis.
It was really a family chesed. My younger children realized that they were giving up their rooms because these families didn’t have electricity or heat; the older kids volunteered at Sh’or Yoshuv sorting clothes, serving
batteries, lanterns—everything the communities would need
Home Depot in Baltimore was suspicious of the fact that we wanted to purchase hundreds of generators; they assumed we would be bringing them to New York to resell. I told them to speak with the attorney general of Maryland who knows me personally and could vouch for me. They contacted the attorney general and realized we had truly come to do a good deed. We ended up bringing 120 generators, 250 gas cans and thousands of batteries, flashlights, sump pumps, trash bags and more. With a caravan of four large rented trucks, one mini truck and my four-wheel drive, we left for New York with more than $150,000 worth of emergency equipment.
meals and cleaning out homes. My kids missed a lot of school, but there are certain lessons that can’t be learned in the classroom.
FRANK STORCH
Baltimore-based real estate manager and founder of ChesedFund/Project Ezra, an organization that deals with health and safety in the community
Iwas in Israel when I heard about the hurricane. I changed my ticket so I could return earlier and help out.
A member of Hatzalah called, saying he was interested in taking some generators from Baltimore to New York. Instead of bringing just a few generators, I thought, Let’s make a large purchase of generators, gas cans, flashlights,
Hundreds of people were gathered in the Five Towns to greet us, some with tears in their eyes they so desperately needed generators. We were proud to be the first major contingent to bring emergency supplies for the community. Over the next number of days, we sent close to a thousand cans of gasoline into the area. At the same time, we were involved in a clothing drive in Baltimore; we had truckloads of clothing to be distributed.
Rabbi Shmuel Silber, rav of Suburban Orthodox Congregation in Baltimore, was instrumental in getting the local shuls on board to launch a major drive to help the Seagate community. Over the next week and a half, we sent six busloads of volunteers to help pump out basements and remove debris from homes.
Then we came up with the idea of making a “Welcome Home” carnival in Bayswater, something for the kids that the parents could also enjoy.Fifty girls from Baltimore’s Bais Yaakov High School and Bnos Yisroel volunteered to help coordinate the carnival. We got food donated for the carnival including
hot dogs, cotton candy and popcorn. Two Baltimore companies contributed cases of soda and over a thousand stuffed animals. Close to 2,000 people came. It brought people the kind of joy they hadn’t experienced in weeks.
SHAINDLE RUSSELL
Resident of Bayswater
The morning after the hurricane, I took a walk with a friend. We looked around at the devastation; it felt unreal. It didn’t seem like our neighborhood. When we passed the Agudah on Bayswater Avenue, we saw that water had reached the ceiling; sefarim were floating. That’s when it hit me: my house was fine, my family was fine, but my neighborhood wasn’t. I had to help.
I went to speak with Rabbi Eliezer Feuer of the Young Israel of Bayswater. I told him that there was going to be a serious shortage of food in the community. He said, “Okay, we’re opening a food pantry. You’re in charge.”
We set up a distribution site in front of the Young Israel. I called a few friends to join me. The JCC of Far Rockaway and the Five Towns delivered all the food in its food pantry to us.
Brach’s supermarket in Lawrence told us to order whatever we needed. Michael Schick, a Brooklyn caterer, brought dinner, which fed about 300 to 400 people. Food just kept showing up, from Williamsburg, Borough Park and Flatbush. There were two young Chassidish guys who dropped off homemade food. I asked them, “Are you going back to Borough Park? Can I give you my laundry to give to my daughter in Brooklyn to wash?” One of them texted me at six the next morning asking what else we needed. I told him we needed Lebens and yogurts and a few other things and he delivered it all. Complete strangers would just show up with truckloads of food. We had peanut butter, bread, eggs, rice, beans and tons of canned goods.
Spring 5773/2013 JEWISH ACTION I 35
Frank Storch (in the yellow jacket) and a few Baltimore volunteers brought over $150,000 worth of emergency equipment including much-needed generators to Far Rockaway and the Five Towns in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Word got out and people just started coming. By Thursday the week of the hurricane, we had an open-door policy at the Young Israel and we were serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. I got there every day by 6:45 AM and people would just show up to help.
Some people from the Upper West Side of Manhattan called and told us they wanted to bring food; they asked what we needed. I faxed a list of items. If I asked for a case of red peppers, they brought five cases—they more than tripled everything. They drove in with a huge truck and started unloading. Another truck pulled up and the driver came out and said, “I heard you need paper goods.” People delivered cases of apple juice, orange juice and milk. An organization brought two thousand cases of water bottles. Volunteers from Masbia, a network of kosher soup kitchens, would show up at 11:00 at night and deliver 700 meals for the next day. Even though we kept putting out so much food each day, more food kept coming in.
While working in the soup kitchen, I heard a lot of sad stories. For so many people the situation was extremely overwhelming. Although many people who lived in unaffected areas were very
helpful, they didn’t know what it was like to live like this. For the first few days, I tried to keep people’s spirits up. There was an elderly woman who came to eat with us; she wasn’t from the neighborhood. She was crying, “This is so hard for me; I have anxiety.” I asked her, “Did you ever go to summer camp? This is camp; we are going to make it fun. We’re all going to be together and it’s going to be okay.”
It was an amazing experience to see bochurim from New Square and Kiryas Joel arriving in buses to help. They would take off their beaver hats and black coats and get all dirty, cleaning mold and sewage off walls of basements. They would leave and then another crew would arrive.
Everyone was helping out any way they could. Men who were up all night setting up generators or cleaning out boilers for people would then come in to eat in the morning, their clothes smelling of gasoline.
We have a nineteen-year-old foster child who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Due to some medical issues, he’s on a nebulizer and has a gastric feeding tube. He’s also on a chest compression machine. If he stays in a cold house, he could end up with pneu-
monia. An electrician in our community showed up with a generator and we had heat. People donated gas so that the house would remain warm.
I had planned a trip to Israel for October thirtieth, which El Al had canceled due to the hurricane. I rescheduled it for later that week. On the way to the airport, I asked my husband, “How could I leave when there is so much that has to be done here?” When I called to reschedule, El Al was about to charge another $300. We explained that we needed to stay to help and the airline decided not to charge me.
For the two Shabbosim following the hurricane, everyone in the community received food. I’m not sure which caterers in Williamsburg, Monroe or Borough Park sent it, but the food was amazing. I was leaving for Israel that Motzaei Shabbos. For Shalosh Seudos, I walked to shul just to be there. The men were singing and then suddenly it hit me—what an awesome experience this has been. I was totally exhausted, having slept four hours a night for two weeks straight. As I walked home, I saw that all the streetlights were on.
When I got on the plane for Israel, I found myself seated next to a secular Jewish woman going to Israel for the first time. She asked about the hurricane. As I was telling her my story, I realized that I was part of a group who just made life happen for so many others. We gave people a home, a place to go. It wasn’t just the food; it was the whole atmosphere. Hashem put us here so that we could emulate Him, to have pleasure from taking care of each other. And that’s what we did. g
36 I JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
Baltimore team from Tiferes Yisroel Congregation including Yaakov Gur (second from left), Shlomo Goldberger (fourth from left) and Nossi Gross (fifth from left) help remove sand and debris from a flooded basement of a Seagate resident (in green apron).
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND TORAH VALUES
TOURO’S LANDER COLLEGES
Students Serious Their
Students First-Choice Schools
Career-Focused and Placement
Generous Available Academic Qualified
Rigorous Honors Programs
COLLEGE OF ARTS
Women’s Schools
Integrated Medicine, and Environment Supportive Comprehensive Studies Lander Lander Women
LANDER COLLEGE FOR MEN
Kew Gardens Hills
Rabbi Barry Nathan
Phone: 718.820.4884/4904
barry.nathan@touro.edu
LANDER AR LANDER COLLEGE & SCIENCES o in Flatbush our @ T To s & W Separate Men’’s oplan Steven T To Phone: Email: admissions.lander@tour s omen ’ ’s Wo o.edu wGarGardensHills rd M sarah.klugmann@tour School Hasten ark
n the book Out of the Whirlwind, the Rav, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, z”l, teaches that Judaism’s approach to suffering rests on three pillars. The first is acknowledging that evil and suffering exist and they are bad. We cannot whitewash, disguise or ignore pain, hurt or loss, nor should we attempt to justify or deny this reality.
The second pillar is to never passively accept evil and suffering; we must fight against it. God endowed
man with intellect and resources that should be used to actively and aggressively battle evil or, even better, seek to prevent suffering. Thus, we are obligated to research cures for diseases, build Iron Domes and David’s Slings and heed warnings to get out of harm’s way if all else fails and we are unable to thwart the evil. Passive resistance is not the Jewish way; sanctity and preservation of life is.
Thirdly, the pillar that the Jewish community has perfected over several millennia of suffering is faith—faith that even as nature defeats us and we lose battles against our enemies time and again, ultimately evil will be annihilated and suffering will cease to exist.
In short, we acknowledge the reality of suffering, resolve to oppose and resist it in any way we can and hold tight to the belief that we will one day eliminate it and triumph over its demise.
Think about the devastation Superstorm Sandy left in her wake. Dozens of communities and countless lives have been irrevocably altered by the loss of homes and cherished, irreplaceable possessions. Even those who only sustained temporary losses—the interruption of the normal routines of work, school, transportation and power—experienced suffering, albeit on a much lesser scale. How does one uphold pillar number three of the Rav’s hashkafah in such a situation? We are
continued on page 40
A member of Kesher Israel Congregation, an OU shul in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, hauls garbage to the curb for a homeowner in the South Beach neighborhood of Staten Island. Rabbi Akiva Males, of Kesher Israel, organized a relief effort, which brought members of Harrisburg’s Jewish community to communities devastated by
Hurricane Sandy.
Photo: Sean Simmers
Rabbi Steven Weil is executive vice president of the Orthodox Union.
A LIFELINE IN THE STORM:
OU Provides Relief to Communities Devastated by Sandy
By Bayla Sheva Brenner
Within hours of Sandy’s devastation, the OU sprung into action. On its web site, the OU launched the OU Hurricane Relief Fund, giving the greater community an opportunity to reach out and assist those struggling to come to terms with their losses and rebuild their lives.
The response was overwhelming.
“Funds were streaming in from 190 cities across North America,” saysEmanuel Adler, chairman of the OU Synagogue Services Commission. “Thus far, we’ve raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. In times of crisis our role is to organize and provide the needed financial, as well as moral, support,” says Mr. Adler who also chaired the OU Hurricane Relief Fund.
OU lay leaders and staff members made multiple trips to the hardest-hit communities, including Seagate and Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn, Belle Harbor in the Rockaways and Long Beach, the Five Towns, Atlantic Beach and Lido Beach on Long Island. They came to demonstrate the heartfelt concern behind each generous check.
“We were all in shock,” says Rabbi Judah Isaacs, OU director of community engagement. “I don’t think anyone imagined that water could do such damage. I saw the piles of garbage, which really were people’s lives. Their sofas, their cribs, all of their possessions were out on the street. I said to those in the besieged communities, ‘We’re here for the long term.’” Gerald Schreck, OU national vice president and chairman of its Communications Commission, visited the stricken enclave of Seagate with a significant OU Hurricane Fund check in hand. Meeting with the Seagate Vaad, comprised mostly of Satmar representatives, Mr. Schreck said, “The OU tent got a bit wider today.”
Mr. Adler reports that amid the wreckage, the feeling of kol Yisrael areivim zeh la zeh was pervasive, lifting spirits in community after community.
“I didn’t ask the OU what it could offer—the OU called us,” says Rabbi Eytan Feiner of Kneseth Israel, known as the White Shul, an OU shul in Far Rockaway. “They said, ‘Tell us what you are experiencing; what are your ba’alei batim enduring? How can we help?’ The OU is much more than an organization; it’s made up of remarkable individuals.”
According to Rabbi Feiner, the fund plays a pivotal role for those who are ineligible to receive grants from FEMA. “A congregant who had to close down his office due to the destruction came to see me. He wasn’t able to get money from other resources. The family lives from day to day. They were so grateful for the Hurricane Fund’s help. I said, ‘Don’t thank me; thank the OU.’”
The OU also found itself fostering achdut in unexpected ways.
Bayla Sheva Brenner is senior writer in the OU Communications and Marketing Department.
Rabbi Shmuly Yanklowitz, rav of Kehilath Israel Congregation in Overland Park, Kansas, realized he could make excellent use of his synagogue’s storehouse of fifteen sifrei Torah With the aim of helping other synagogues that had lost their Torah scrolls to the raging waters of Sandy, he turned to the OU to help find a shul that needed a Torah, as one community’s gift to another.
Arrangements were made to donate the Torah to Congregation Ahavas Yisrael in Cedarhurst, New York. Rabbi Yanklowitz and his wife, Shoshana, personally delivered the Torah to its new home. The fact that neither of the two shuls were OU congregations didn’t affect the shidduch “They are doing good work,” says OU President Dr. Simcha Katz. “That’s all that matters.”
The OU and UJA-Federation of New York provided funding for a trailer to be used by Congregation Ohab Zedek of Belle Harbor while its building is being repaired. In addition, the shul received a cash grant from the OU Hurricane Relief Fund to help with other expenses.
Currently, federal law is unclear about whether the fourteen synagogues that were severely impacted by Sandy are entitled to disaster relief FEMA grants equal to other impacted nonprofits. The OU’s Institute for Public Affairs is working with officials at the White House, the Department of Homeland Security (under which FEMA operates) and Congress to clarify the status of houses of worship for such aid. In the meantime, the OU Hurricane Relief Fund has helped in the repairing of Hurricane-affected shuls and community mikvaot.
“We have families still living in other people’s homes,” says Rabbi Ira Ebbin, rav of Congregation Ohav Sholom in Merrick, New York. “The OU committed to help in any way it could. Families come to me in desperation and I can say, ‘Here’s several thousand dollars.’ In the sense of the community realizing how much we need each other and how we come through for each other, this is our finest hour.”
To contribute to the OU Hurricane Relief Fund, please visit www.ou.org/sandy or call 212.613.8336.
Gerald M. Schreck, OU national vice president, presenting a check from the OU’s Hurricane Relief Fund to the Seagate community.
From left: The entertainer and Seagate resident Mordechai Ben David; Yanky Elefant; Gerald Schreck; Dayan Pinchas Meisels and J.B. Walhandler.
Photo: Hillel Engel
A TRAGEDY DOES NOT DEFINE US, BUT HOW WE RESPOND TO IT DOES.
continued from page 38
bidden to maintain our faith even as we are utterly defeated. How can we face such a tragic reality and at the same time be optimistic about what the future holds?
There are many ways to deal with suffering, and we could never be so brazen as to judge the reaction of anyone who has endured pain or loss. We can, however, observe which of these reactions helps the sufferer move forward and overcome his distress. A person can fall apart, become hysterical or dysfunctional, get angry and relentlessly question, “Why did this happen to me?” While this is probably the most natural response, it holds one captive to his pain because he will never get a satisfactory answer to the “why me” question.
Others may accept their lot with equanimity: bad things happen to everyone, now it is my turn. I will bear the suffering because it is the hand I have been dealt. This is certainly a more constructive approach than the former, as it allows a person to accept his circumstance as inevitable, knowing that the difficulty will eventually pass and maybe even be forgotten.
But there is another level of acceptance, one that, according to the Rav, makes all the difference: accepting pain and suffering with dignity and humility. This is radically different than accepting suffering with equanimity, which enables a person to persevere through hardship but offers no meaning or purpose to the suffering. The dignity and humility of a human being derives from the fact that we are all created in the image of God, b’tzelem
Elokim. Accepting God’s decrees with humility means we acknowledge the Hand of God, even as we cannot fathom His plan for unleashing such fury. Accepting our defeat against evil and suffering with dignity means we heroically attempt to assert our humanity, our spark of Divinity, even in the midst of the incomprehensible. With dignity, we don’t just endure, we uplift; we don’t passively accept, we actively rebuild; we don’t ask why, we ask what can we do to make it better and how will we lead our lives differently as a result of this experience.
I am awed and overwhelmed by the dignified way we as a people, as a community and as a family, accepted our defeat against the forces of nature. We were there for each other—“Imo anochi b’tzarah, I am with you in times of trouble.” Busloads of volunteers traveled to hard-hit communities to help with the cleanup efforts. People who had generators or were lucky enough to have power ran virtual hotels for those who didn’t. Their doors, kitchens, bedrooms, outlets and hot showers were available to all—not just to friends and family, but to total strangers as well. The community in Silver Spring, Maryland, sent buses to New York to pick up fellow Jews and host them for a Shabbat that would otherwise have been cold and dark. Noah’s Ark and Shelly’s, restaurants in Teaneck, New Jersey, provided a refrigerated truck where people could store their perishable food that would have spoiled in the extended power outage, saving families thousands of dollars. Countless shuls and schools of-
fered meals, warmth, power and chizuk to the general population in their communities—not just to fellow Jews. People donated clothing, supplies and money so generously and with such sensitivity, as the recipients were, for the most part, not people who were used to taking. The dignity we extended to each other in this unprecedented time of need was truly extraordinary—“V’chavod v’hadar t’atreihu, And [You] crowned [mankind] with soul and splendor” (Tehillim 8:6). How can we face such a tragic reality and at the same time be optimistic about what the future holds? Because we face it not with defeat, not with equanimity, but with dignity. Because the tragedy does not define us, but how we respond to it does. One of the underlying precepts of Judaism is gratitude, hakarat hatov. Our rabbis instituted the notion that we should recite one hundred blessings every day. That translates into one hundred opportunities to spend a moment appreciating the little things that are so easily taken for granted. Hurricane Sandy, in all of its devastation, has taught us the same lesson—to appreciate how precious our lives, homes and possessions are. There is dignity in realizing that when everything is literally washed away, what defines us is not our “stuff,” but our relationships and our altruistic acts to help alleviate the pain of others. Despite the reality of evil and suffering, and our failed attempts to eradicate these ills, we are able to have faith—faith in our people, whose essence is a Godlike dignity, and faith in Hashem, whose prophet Isaiah promises that a time will come when (25:8) “U’macha Hashem dimah me’al kol panim, And God will erase tears from all faces.” g
There are many ways to support Israel and its people, but none is more transformative than a gift to Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency medical response and blood service agency. Your gift to MDA isn’t just changing lives — it’s literally saving them — providing critical care and hospital transport for everyone from victims of heart attacks to casualties of rocket attacks. Save a life. Make a gift to Magen David Adom today.
info@afmda.org
SEEKING ANSWERS WITH HUMILITY
By Dov Karoll
Adapted from an address by Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein
One’s response to the specific event of this particular storm, or to natural disasters in general, is a function of one’s general view both of the melding interaction between God and the world, i.e., of natural events within a supernatural context, and of one’s right and, perhaps, one’s duty, to reflect upon the events themselves, to try to gauge and delineate the dimensions and roots of events of this kind. Within the purviews and parameters of religious faith, that could take a number of forms.
One response would be to view the phenomenon as a manifestation of the Divine breaking through the crust of the natural world, a fiery expression of Divine anger, a manifestation of God’s middat hadin.
Beyond that, some people presume to know the ways of the Almighty, audaciously ascribing a cause-and-effect relationship to a tragedy which befalls mankind, and which also expresses a message being addressed to us by God.
Others will speak instead of an ele-
ment of Divine beneficence, that God is taking us under His wing and relating to us; they assume that the worst possible thing that can happen to an individual or to humanity as a whole is that God should simply leave us to our own devices, and that being a victim is better than being ignored completely. Rav Nachman says in the gemara in Sanhedrin (105a), “Kol ki hai ritcha lirtach Rachamana alan ve’lifrokinan, May God take such drastic steps as He sees fit,” but keep us in mind “and redeem us.”
That there have been people who were entitled to speak in that vein, I think, goes without question, within the parameters of our emunah We believe that there are certain individuals, prophets as a category, who have been blessed, or sometimes tormented, with some kind of contact with God through prophecy. In Tanach, God reveals Himself in different manifestations; Chazal speak of God being manifest at Keriat Yam Suf as a warrior, and at Ma’amad Har Sinai as an elderly teacher.
If we assume that this phenomenon is an expression of God revealing Him-
Adapted from an address by Harav Aharon Lichtenstein, rosh yeshivah of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel, by Rabbi Dov Karoll. Special thanks to Rabbi Reuven Ziegler for helping in the preparation of this article. For the complete transcript from which this article was adapted, please see http://pagesoffaith.wordpress.com/2012/11/11/on-appropriate-religious-responses-to-hurricane-sandy/.
self to punish, it stands to reason that this is God’s response to sin. Namely, that the message of mipnei chata’einu, this has befallen us because of our sins, is being transmitted in a national, and even super-national, vein.
This is a very difficult response to digest, but some people glory in it; it gives them an opportunity to reflect upon their own virtue, as opposed to the infamy which they see in those around them. However, in this context, another question arises: does one have either a right, or a duty, to speak that language?
I come from a school of thought which reacts very strongly against statements, assertions and defamations made by people who speak as if they have a direct hotline to God, such that they are able to interpret events in accordance with their philosophic orientation, their spiritual stance. The gemara in Sanhedrin (105b) comments with regard to Bilam’s self-description, “yodei’a da’at Elyon, he who grasps the understanding of the Most High” (Numbers 24:16): “He grasps not the understanding of his own animal; does he grasp the understanding of the Most High?” In part, the problem here is one of folly for a person to imagine that he understands the ways of God. Apart from the
42 I JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
folly, there is a certain arrogance and a repugnant self-confidence involved in this type of statement.
Another possible approach would ascribe certain disasters to an absence of hashgachah pratit, Divine providence, over the individual or community involved. The Ramban and the Rambam speak of hashgachah pratit as being limited to a small cadre of people. According to the Ramban, it is moral-religious virtues which qualify a person for that hashgachah, while according to the Rambam it is intellectual virtues. Regardless of that difference, they jointly take the position that hashgachah pratit applies in varying degrees to different people, and it does not protect the ordinary individual. As such, the individual, or even a whole community, and possibly even the universal community of one’s time, can sometimes be left to the devices of natural forces.
I should note that Rav Yitzchak Hutner pointed out that the Ramban and the Rambam here do not mean to say that hashgachah has no way of dealing with one who deserves to be punished. Rather, it means that he is left to his own devices and to natural forces, and this itself is a manifestation of hashgachah; namely, God deals with those who defy Him by taking them and throwing them into the lion’s den, with the lions doing what they naturally do.
Regardless of the theological construct, the advocates of this approach presume a right, out of a sense of their own virtue, as well as a duty, to help humanity mend its ways and restore contact and communication with God.
For this, people like myself have no stomach. First of all, the arrogance of the assertion that one understands God’s ways is frightful. But there is a second problem here, which is the assumption that one’s priorities are not to mend one’s own ways, but rather to put the whole world in good shape. This is a total misconception of what teshuvah demands of a person. In this regard, we are not to draw on the model of the prophets, who were given a charge to deliver a message to the
THE ARROGANCE OF THE ASSERTION THAT ONE UNDERSTANDS GOD’S WAYS IS FRIGHTFUL.
people regardless of any personal shortcomings they may have had.
We live after the Shoah, and that is something that we cannot, and should not, disregard. There are people who speak of the Shoah itself in the vein of mipnei chata’einu, despite its being a phenomenon of much greater scale and significance. That kind of reaction to the Shoah has elicited terrible responses.
I’m a talmid of Rav Hutner’s, as are some of my colleagues, yet some of my colleagues and I find it impossible to digest the kind of position which the rosh yeshivah took, explaining, based on the parshiyot in Vayelech and Nitzavim respectively, and with some analysis of modern European history, that it was all mipnei chata’einu With all my respect and admiration of the rosh yeshivah, that kind of statement is something I absolutely could not begin to fathom.
In sum, while one cannot assert that the mipnei chata’einu theory is not correct objectively, one has no way of knowing that it is correct either. As such, it is worth admitting that, in an era without prophecy, you will never know. Our priority needs to be teshuvah, which includes in it an element of hakarat hacheit,recognizing and realizing one’s sin, but that’s not the only element. It is much better to admit you don’t know rather than to give answers that are spiritually unsatisfactory.
A religious response needs to be spiritual, submissive and not supercilious in any way. It is not for us to limit God in terms of what He can or cannot do. We live by a faith that God Himself is guided by moral principles—by principles of justice—as Avraham Avinu questioned: “Hashofet kol ha’aretz lo ya’aseh mishpat, Will the Judge of the entire world not perform justice?” (Genesis 18:25). We assume there is justice. Assuming that, there are questions, admittedly: could the Jews of Eastern Europe have done anything so terrible as to deserve the fate which befell them? We cannot begin to imag-
ine that, and we should not want to imagine that. So we need to be submissive and, to some extent, hope for the better, while weeping for the worst. There is another point that comes up in this connection. Some people use such an event as a base for solidifying their religious faith, by emphasizing human frailty in contrast to Divine power. They will note how such an event shows us God’s might, how He can upset the whole equilibrium of nature. It is unclear why someone who is aware of the contemporary understanding of the vastness of the universe, at the most superficial level, would make such an assertion. Einstein calculated that the diameter of the universe is billions of light years. It is a basic axiom of faith that God is sovereign over the entire universe. Given that God perpetually controls this vast universe, why would we need the waters of the Long Island Sound to run ten or fifteen feet high in order to believe that God is running the world? It makes no sense logically or psychologically, but some people use this to attack the secularists.
It should be noted that Chazal instruct us, when faced with yissurin (suffering) large or small, to introspect and take everything into consideration, leading to a spiritual response of mending your ways by reducing, massively, the possible grounds for what happened to you. That is clearly a desirable and feasible response, but it doesn’t mean that you can say with certainty that you are important enough to have such a message addressed to you.
The Rambam in the beginning of Hilchot Ta’aniyot addresses himself to the question of being left to our own devices. Particularly with regard to what happens to Knesset Yisrael, we are commanded not to ascribe it to accidents, but it doesn’t mean that you can say with certainty what the answer is; rather, you take care of the eventualities, and raise possibilities. It behooves us to be modest, to be chozer beteshuvah, and hope for the best. g
ACHDUT BY SANDY, OR ACHDUT BY LOVE?
By Stephen J. Savitsky
Several years ago, while traveling by plane, I found myself seated next to a Reform Jew who seemed interested in the Daf Yomi I was studying.
This was right after Hurricane Katrina and my seatmate—who turned out to be the weatherman for a local TV station in New Orleans—said he had been in New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Katrina. In the course of our conversation, he marveled how every Jewish organization— local, national and international — expressed concern for the welfare of New Orleans’s small Jewish community after the hurricane. The 10,000 Jews in New Orleans were housed, fed, clothed and treated with the utmost care and dignity by the broader Jewish community.
In contrast, he mentioned how hundreds of non-Jews were herded into the Superdome and treated as if they were homeless. Then he told me something I’ll never forget: “In all my life I was never prouder to be a Jew than during Hurricane Katrina.”
This incident came to mind as I witnessed the Five Towns and Far Rockaway communities band together to assist those suffering devastating losses due to Hurricane Sandy. Most impressively, I witnessed the great achdut that was evident throughout the broader Orthodox world. Help came from groups across the spectrum—new linens and kugel from the Satmar community of Williamsburg; much-needed generators and flashlights from the Jewish community of Baltimore and cleaning help from teens of Mai-
monides School in Boston, to name a few. It was truly an extraordinary sight to see Jews with markedly different hashkafot unite together to help their fellow Jews in a time of need. The question is, will this achdut last?
In Megillat Esther, which we recently read,
when the Jewish people are threatened with extinction by the wicked Haman, Esther says, “Go, assemble all the Jews that are to be found in Shushan, and fast for me” (4:16). Similarly, at the very end of the Megillah, the theme of Jewish unity is emphasized once again (10:3). Interestingly, the achdut in the latter verse, which is traditionally recited aloud by the entire congregation, takes place after the story of Purim is over, when life has taken a vastly different turn for the Jews of the Persian Empire. Peace and tranquility reign. The Jewish people have a Jewish queen and prime minister and their enemies have been obliterated. In my
THESE RECOMMENDATIONS COULD BE A STARTING POINT FOR ANY COMMUNITY INTERESTED IN PURSUING GENUINE AND LASTING ACHDUT:
So what can we do to bring all Orthodox Jews together? I have several suggestions for what could be a starting point for my community of the Five Towns and Far Rockaway, a community, by the way, that has only one va’ad hakashrut,a testament in and of itself to our desire for achdut.
• Implement monthly chesed projects (separate gender) for all junior high and high school students to help break down barriers.
• Start community-wide parashat hashavuah sheets to be prepared by all local boys’ and girls’ schools (separately) to be distributed to local shuls. Representatives from each school should work together, giving teens from different schools a chance to meet and interact with one another.
• Set up an achdut council representing the various segments of the community, with the simple goal of promoting achdut.
• Encourage local rabbis to switch pulpits on a regular basis.
• Start a lecture series with rabbis and educators from all the local schools and shuls.
• Establish a quarterly achdut Shabbat, where people are encouraged
to daven one of the three Shabbat tefillot at a synagogue they usually do not attend.
• Invite outside speakers from the various camps in the Orthodox world to come together on one stage to show unity.
• Encourage block parties so that everyone within a certain geographic area gets together for a Shabbat kiddush or a Sunday barbecue to meet neighbors who perhaps attend a different school or shul.
• Set up places to learn where everyone, regardless of hashkafah, is encouraged to attend. Create community outreach programs to bring in unaffiliated Jews who live in our community and have never experienced the beauty and joy of a Shabbat. It should become known that everyone in our community is willing to sit, daven and learn with one another.
Stephen J. Savitsky is chairman of the board of the Orthodox Union.
mind, the unity expressed here is one of the greatest miracles of the Purim story. Despite the fact that it was a time of peace, the Jewish people put aside their individual differences and cared for and loved one another.
When I attend events such as the OU’s Yachad Family Shabbaton, which brings together families of children with special needs, I observe Jews of all stripes, from Chassidic to Modern Orthodox to secular, coming together to share an inspirational Shabbat. While such a display of unity is certainly uplifting, why is it that we can only get together when we share a common challenge or problem?
Should we be impressed with the extraordinary achdut Hurricane Sandy brought about when most likely this display of unity will dissipate as soon as people get back on their feet and it’s back to “business as usual”?
I once heard Rabbi Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, speak to a mostly secular Jewish audience about the mitzvah of aliyah He quoted from the Book of Isaiah where the prophet
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER:
uses the imagery of clouds and doves to describe those returning to the Promised Land. “Who are these, who fly like a cloud, like doves to their cotewindows [nests]?” (60:8) Citing Rav Kook, Rabbi Lau explained that there is a major difference between a cloud and a dove. A cloud comes because the winds move it along. A dove comes seeking its loved ones.
Rabbi Lau then asked the group, “How are you going to come to Israel? Are you going to come like the cloud because you’re pushed here by a Holocaust or by anti-Semitism? Or are you going to come like a dove, seeking love?”
Similarly, I want to ask my fellow Jews: Are we going to celebrate achdut only when there are clouds of tragedy looming, or are we going to celebrate achdut like the doves because we genuinely seek to love one another?
Let’s take this opportunity to bring achdut to a new level. Let’s not wait for a tragedy, chas veshalom, to unite us. Let’s make achdut so ordinary, it will no longer be newsworthy. g
MY NAME IS YISRAEL JEROME BETHEA.
I use lenses, cameras and film as a medium to connect and speak through music and words. stories. These images are the the Jewish people.
background is acting in film television, theater, musical thevoice-overs and motion capture games, and I also taught actproduce and create, putting other side of the camera. I shoot and edit film, promovideos, fundraising promos and that needs to be conveyed beautifully in video or photos. asked to photograph the relief efforts in Baltimore, live. My family was okay, Hashem. I wasn’t affected, I As I was taking the photos, I kept coming back to one
spot. Several hours later, as I was reviewing the photos, I noticed the spot and angle I kept returning to: “Baby Supplies.” Something about that sign was really getting to me. I realized that this was real. There are babies who were severely affected by the storm. If these were my children, what would I do? What would I hope someone would do for me and my children?
The next day, in tears, I, like so many others, set out to do something for the victims with my strength and ability—my lenses. The photos in this section were meant to inspire and encourage you to do what you can, with your own abilities, whether that be tefillah, time or money. I look forward to meeting you on the frontlines of this endeavor, one way or another.
By Pessie (Sherry) Horowitz Profile
Conversing with Poet Yehoshua November
rofessor Yehoshua November’s debut poetry collection God’s Optimism won the 2010 Main Street Rag Poetry Book Award, was nominated for an LA Times Book Prize and was a finalist for the Tampa Review Prize for Poetry and Autumn House Poetry Prize. November, who holds a master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, was the recipient of the Prairie Schooner Bernice Slote Award, and had his poem “After Our Wedding” read on NPR. November’s poems have appeared in some of the most prestigious literary magazines including Prairie Schooner, the Sun, Margie, Provincetown Arts and in numerous Jewish publications. November, who was raised in a traditional Jewish home, became Chassidic in college and spent two years studying at the Lubavitch Rabbinical College of America in Morristown, New Jersey. Twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, November teaches writing at Rutgers University and Touro College.
Pessie (Sherry) Horowitz received an MFA in poetry from New England College. She lives in Wesley Hills, New York, with her husband and their five children.
Photo courtesy of Yehoshua November
SH: How did you come to be interested in poetry?
YN: I was raised in a traditional Jewish home by parents who had an appreciation for the arts. My mother studied art history and my father, an obstetrician, had many secular books in the house. He memorized lines from his favorite Shakespeare plays and recited them when he was in an especially good mood. My introduction to poetry, though, came via music. My father had all the Bob Dylan records and was a big fan of Leonard Cohen and Paul Simon. Some of their lyrics are superior to a lot of poetry. My older brother Baruch is also a poet, and I suppose I followed his lead. Like most teenagers, I was lonely and wanted to be understood. Poetry seemed to be the answer.
SH: Why did you leave poetry for two years?
YN: Aside from feeling I lacked the wisdom to be writing poetry, I became disillusioned with the culture of poetry. In graduate school, I often felt that some of my classmates were more interested in the writing culture than writing itself. It seemed like there was this assumption that a poet had to live a certain lifestyle; one, for example, where family life is not highly valued. The Chassidic world and the poetry world I was simultaneously inhabiting could not have been more different from each other. At the time, I didn’t think it was possible to bridge this gap. Also, I reached a point where I wanted to fully immerse myself in the study of Chassidus
SH: It would seem that writing poetry would not be at odds with the contemplative and spiritual life in Judaism, yet there is a dearth of Orthodox Jewish poets in the literary world. To what do you attribute the lack of poetry in the Orthodox community today?
YN: Although poetry may have started out as a vehicle for the expression of spirituality, and it can still serve that function, contemporary poetry is generally rooted in the secular experience. A person of faith will probably feel like an outsider in
JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
Baal Teshuvas at the Mikvah
an advanced liberal arts program where few share his beliefs. And it’s in the university where much of poetry’s direction is determined today. Additionally, if there are Orthodox Jews seeking publication and their poetry deals with their Judaism, they will have a harder time getting their work to appeal to the largely secular publishing houses.
Though great Jewish leaders—Moses, King David, King Solomon—were remarkable poets, many roshei yeshivah and rebbeim do not encourage creative expression, even though they may not blatantly oppose it. Perhaps, they might say, King David’s poetry is quite different in that it was Divinely inspired. However, we know that later Jewish sages also wrote poetry. And not all of their poetry is overtly religious.
Sometimes you see them in the dressing area of the ritual bath, young bearded men unbuttoning their white shirts, slipping out of their black trousers, until, standing entirely naked, they are betrayed by the tattoos of their past life: a ring of fire climbing up a leg, an eagle whose feathery wing span spreads the width of the chest, or worse, the scripted name of a woman other than one’s wife.
Then, holding only a towel, they begin, once more, the walk past the others in the dressing room: the rabbi they will soon sit before in Talmud class, men with the last names of the first Chasidic families almost everyone, devout since birth.
And with each step, they curse the poverty that keeps the dark ink etched in their skin, until, finally, they descend the stairs of the purifying water, and, beneath the translucent liquid, appear, once again, like the next man, who, in all this days, has probably never made a sacrifice as endearing to God.
From God’s Optimism
Orthodox Judaism today is a culture predicated largely on Torah study, which is the way it should be. Jewish education is the key to Jewish continuity. On the other hand, the Torah begins with the second letter in the Hebrew alphabet, Beis, and not with Aleph, the first letter, to remind us that there is something behind the intellectual dimension of the Torah. There’s the One, there’s Aleph. If more Jews were connected to the Aleph, they would be writing more poetry, or doing something similar to writing poetry. They would be touched as human beings, which might lead to more creativity. They would feel more alive and energized and be closer to their emotional core.
When I was studying under the poet Tony Hoagland, he asked me to take him to the Chassidic synagogue I attended at the time. On our walk back from the synagogue, I asked him if he could imagine not writing poetry. He said it wouldn’t be impossible as long as he had other outlets for the creativity and inspiration in his life, like the Chassidic men he had seen in the synagogue. The lack of poetry in the Orthodox community is not necessarily a poetry issue per se, but an issue of creativity or inspiration. The true Jewish way is to be in full com-
mand of the mind and the heart and to use both in the service of God. Overall, Orthodox Jews could improve in the area of the heart, which may be connected to the dearth of poetry. And if there is sometimes a disconnect between what we read in the texts and our real lives, poetry is a good place to explore that, a place to bridge the gap and figure things out.
SH: Which Jewish areas of study influence your work?
YN: Chassidic philosophy has had a profound influence on my work. When I first started learning Chassidus with its mystical foundations, I didn’t think I could write poetry anymore. I had previously thought of poetry as the profound center of truth. But when I began to learn discourses claiming that the physical world I was observing is only an extension of a deeper spiritual reality, I concluded that I didn’t have the right to speak. I was only seeing a glimmer of the truth. I thought, what could I really impart if the mystical teachings hold such deep secrets? I suppose this all-ornothing stance had something to do with me being only twenty-three at the time, but it also speaks to what I saw as poetry’s function.
Ultimately, I got over this humbling stage. In certain instances, it’s clear that poems in God’s Optimism borrow directly from Chassidic philosophy.
SH: Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? Do you have to go through many drafts to get to the finished product, or do the poems come to you easily, with only minor revisions?
YN: Finding time to write is a greater challenge than overcoming dry spells. Usually, reading work that moves me, learning something inspiring or thinking about something that has touched me will give way to new poetry. The poems I’m most satisfied with are written fairly quickly. However, their seeds were usually planted much earlier. For example, I was very moved when I would see young men with tattoos at the mikvah. I didn’t write about this for a long time, but I knew that I would. Then, one day, I felt I had to write about it. When a poem simmers inside for a long time like that, it’s usually written pretty quickly and doesn’t require that much revision. Other poems, those not inspired by a specific event or teaching, often require a lot more revision.
SH: There are many halachot that govern a man’s heart and mind. Indeed you say it so well: “The true Jewish way is to be in full command of the mind and the heart.”
Could you give an example of a poem that you think depicts this idea well?
YN: This is an ideal. I don’t think I’ve ever been in full command of the mind or heart, and certainly not both at once. When I said this, I meant that there are healthy emotions that shouldn’t be suppressed. One should be in command in the sense that it’s okay to feel and be moved. The “Baal Teshuvas at the Mikvah” poem relates to this. The self-consciousness and shame of the men with tattoos is very sad and very human. It may be easy to want to suppress or stig-
The Purpose of this World
When some Jews cannot explain the sorrow of their lives they take a vow of atheism. Then everywhere they go, they curse the God they don’t believe exists. But why, why don’t they grab Him by the lapels, pull His formless body down into this lowly world, and make Him explain.
After all, this is the purpose of creation–to make this coarse realm a dwelling place for His presence.
From God’s Optimism
matize the whole scene because tattoos are forbidden according to Jewish law, but in the poem I try to take the opposite angle and shine a light on this particular moment as one of great sacrifice and courage. It’s the human embarrassment that makes their sacrifice so meaningful. And thinking about how God must appreciate their efforts makes Judaism, as a whole, more real and touching for me.
Growing up, I often felt that many of my rabbis were not really emotional. It seemed to me that their deep commitment to learning and halachah put them out of touch with regular people. And since they represented what I understood to be the ideal Jew, I felt that Judaism, too, would always be something that didn’t have real, personal meaning. After a Conservative rabbi read “Baal Teshuvas at the Mikvah,” he told me he was shocked that the men with tattoos who had become Orthodox were still struggling with their pasts. He was also surprised that someone who looks like me had these kinds of feelings about the whole scenario.
It’s hard to say which is true: if outsiders unfairly superimpose the image of being aloof and insensitive on many “ultra-Orthodox” Jews, or if many Jews within our group really are out of touch with their emotions. In any case, commitment to learning and halachah does not necessitate the suppression of one’s emotions; rather, it should enhance their expression. Maybe poetry and other forms of healthy creative expression can help in this area.
SH: Is there a point at which poetry of the Orthodox Jewish mind collides with contemporary secular poetry?
YN: When writing poetry for a broad audience, I am conscious of the fact that unchecked celebration of God or abounding positivity in general would never go over well. This pushes me to explore questions in my poetry, which is what makes for good poetry anyway. Any kind of resolution has to emerge out of some challenge or doubt; otherwise, the resolution can’t be fulfilling. In creative writing workshops, participants often ask if an uplifting or laudatory con-
While Rachel Masters Science... Science ters
livingandthevalueofJew
Our h tuition in 2011-2012. the 78% of undergraduates
fidential consultation and start nceat212.960.5399oremail entsalike.Seeforyourself.Call ffordabilitydeliversremarkable shipandacademicexcellence
At Ye YeshivaUniversity,weu wishlife.We’remakingJewish understandthecostofJewish yourremarkablejourneyto afford@yu.edu for a confi ourOfficeofStudentFina valuetostudentsandpare ourcommitmenttoaf and exceptional To Torahscholars who received help with Just ask t life affordable. oday.
*A *According to a YU Career Dev
an 80% response rate
500 We West185thStreet|NY, Development Center survey with NY10033|212.960.5277
...W
CollegeE Masterth
.We We’llH heMathon Help Yo n roomaboard!
...We’ll Help You Master the Math on College Expenses.*
clusion to a poem has been “earned.” In other words, does the light emerge out of a significant enough darkness? For art to be moving, it has to be close to life, and life is full of doubts and challenges. A Jew is supposed to trust in God, but this too comes against the backdrop, against the possibility, of doing otherwise. This is what makes faith meaningful. Secular audiences are skeptical about religious poetry because they are skeptical about religious life in general, believing it’s less thoughtful or too simplistic, a kind of mindless surrender that wipes away life’s problems, at least on an intellectual level. If a religious poet is honest, however, if he or she can represent the challenges and humanity of religious life, a secular audience should be able to relate, as long as that audience is open to reading it in the first place.
SH: Maria Gillan, a professor of poetry at Binghamton University, teaches her students that to write well they have to descend “to the deepest places inside of themselves, the place I call the cave, where all their memories and experiences, good and bad, reside.”
K
he income om adjustedgrossincomeo collegeandthreeinday
education.Unlikeothe $ gr alculations erprivateuniversities,YU’s , $6,900ayearforaYU
*A student from Illinois has two siblings in day school. The family has an adjusted gross income of $98,000 a year, and pays $6,900 a year for a YU education. Unlike other private universities, YU’s financial aid calculations consider K-12 tuition for siblings and do not consider the value of a family home and retirement savings.
Many poets would say that writing well requires one to be unflinchingly honest. But is there a danger of giving “the inner voice” too much liberty as far as Jewish law is concerned?
YN: I don’t see intellect as the highest form of the self and emotions as the lowest. The deeper levels of the soul transcend intellect. If a Jew could access that level in himself, he would write some great poetry.
When Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch on Yom Kippur, it wasn’t because he had a profound intellectual understanding of Yom Kippur; it was because to pitch on that day would be to deny his essence, to deny himself. He got in touch with and expressed something very deep—“der pintele Yid”—and that’s not intellectual.
If one is learning a lot of Torah and living a moral life, the poetry he creates will be consistent with that lifestyle.
j g me andretirementsavings. siblingsanddonotconsider s financialaidcalculations
*A student from New Jersey has four siblings—one in college and three in day school. The family has an adjusted gross income of $192,000 a year, and pays $18,250 a year for a YU education. Unlike other private universities, YU’s financial aid calculations consider K-12 tuition for siblings and do not consider the value of a family home and retirement savings.
Scenarios are based on the comprehensive cost of a YU undergraduate education for the 2012-2013 academic year, include all scholarships awarded, federal and state grants and loans received, and standard room and board. Additional fees are not included. Financial aid awards are based on many factors, are subject to funding availability and may vary significantly. This is not a guarantee of your actual cost to attend YU.
The cave Gillan refers to reminds me of all the wonderful things the people in my life have done for me, and it makes me want to thank them in my poetry. My parents and grandparents helped shape my conception of what love means. Thank God, I have a wonderful and loving wife and beautiful children. They occupy a large space in my internal cave, and that’s where my best poetry comes from. I’m sure there’s also a less holy part of the cave, but when I’m writing, I don’t see that emerging. And if it did emerge, I wouldn’t have to publish or share it. It seems to me that a religious Jew might naturally filter out what he deems inappropriate even before it’s written.
There’s a law regarding purity and impurity which states that a food can become impure when it’s wet and no longer connected to the ground—its roots. However, the whole time it’s connected to the ground, its source, it cannot become impure. Similarly, if a Jewish artist is living the right way, if he remains connected to his roots, he won’t become impure. To the contrary, he will be fortified, because he will see that God doesn’t only exist in intrinsically holy things, but outside the synagogue, in daily life, as well as in his art. g
By Michael Orbach
After Newtown Tragedy, OU Advises Caution& Vigilance
In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, which left twenty children and six adults dead, officials at the Orthodox Union are advising Jewish shuls and schools to be extra cautious.
“We’re helping our shuls try to be as prepared as possible for the unthinkable,” says Rabbi Judah Isaacs, OU director of community engagement.
“The most important thing the US Department of Homeland Security will tell you is to be vigilant. Know who belongs in your shul and know who looks out of place.”
Nathan Diament, OU director of public policy, points out that due to past attacks, Jewish institutions— both schools and shuls—already beefed up security prior to the Connecticut tragedy.
Indeed, months before the Newtown massacre, the OU organized a security awareness week in partnership with the Secure Community Network, a Jewish nonprofit dedicated to promoting security measures in Jewish institutions. The program, which drew
over fifty shuls, featured a video presentation on safety from the Department of Homeland Security, a webinar and an “Ask the Expert” forum with leading security professionals.
“Unfortunately, in the Jewish school community there’s been a need for security awareness,” says Diament, citing the school shooting in Toulouse, France, this past March when a Muslim
How to Stay Safe
gunman opened fire and killed three children and one adult at the Ozar HaTorah Jewish day school. Diament also cites the bombing plot in Riverdale in 2009, the bombing of the main synagogues in Turkey in 2003 and the shooting at a Seattle JCC in 1999. Diament remarks that while the Newtown school shooting may be a watershed moment in national security and school
Devise a security plan. Every institution in the Jewish community— small or large— needs to have a plan on how to survive a shooting, what to do if there’s a bombing and how to handle any catastrophic event.
Perform “tabletop exercises” where you act out your security plan. Put together four to five people who are responsible for the infrastructure of the institution—from the most senior leadership official to the maintenance people—and act out various scenarios and how to respond to them.
Conduct Training. Train staff members and shul volunteers in safety and security. Such training is available through the Secure Community Network’s web site free of charge at www.scnus.org.
Develop strong relationships with law enforcement. Bring law enforcement officials to your schools and shuls and share your blueprints with them. Have them provide security assessments of your buildings.
Ideas courtesy of Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network.
Michael Orbach is a writer living in New York.
safety, the impact for the Jewish community will likely be indirect.
“I think what has changed is external to the Jewish community,” he says. “In American society at large and in the political and government arena, it has brought security to the forefront. Hopefully this will yield more resources to make our schools more secure.”
Diament adds that the White House requested proposals for security measures from the OU, which the organization provided.
Rabbi Isaacs observes that shuls face a greater challenge than schools, as they are open to the public. Jewish schools, he maintains, are more secure.
He adds that the American Jewish community does not have the same
level of security as the European community, which has mandatory armed guards posted at the doors of Jewish institutions. “The experts are recommending that we take a look at our shuls and find out how we can be more vigilant,” Rabbi Isaacs says.
Thanks to Department of Homeland Security grants established in 2005, the OU has helped dozens of shuls and Jewish schools across the country pay for security enhancements. While the funding for the program has decreased, Jewish groups, who are especially vulnerable to attacks, received 97 percent of the $10 million allocations this year.
Yehuda Friedman, OU associate director of community engagement, advises shuls to form a security
committee and develop relationships with local law enforcement. That way in the event of an attack, “they’ll respond appropriately and swiftly,” he says.
To illustrate how cautious shuls need to be, Rabbi Isaacs likes to tell a story about former Senator Joseph Lieberman. During the 2000 election, when Lieberman was running for vice president, the Secret Service accompanied him to shul on Yom Kippur. When one congregant made the mistake of wearing leather shoes, the Secret Service immediately realized something was out of place; they nearly jumped the congregant. “This story shows us how the Secret Service thinks, and how we don’t,” Rabbi Isaacs explains. g
Rabbi Steven Burg: Twenty-two Years
AFTER MORE THAN TWO DECADES OF DEDICATED SERVICE, RABBI STEVEN
BURG HAS LEFT NCSY.
Starting out as program coordinator for the Central East Region of NCSY, Rabbi Burg soon found himself regional director of West Coast NCSY, which grew exponentially under his guiding hand. From there, it was only a short hop—professionally if not geographically—to become international director, where he could impact thousands of teens on a much broader scale.
of Dedication to NCSY
While Rabbi Burg was involved in every aspect of NCSY, he is most heavily identified with two programs which indelibly bear his imprint. One of these is TJJ, the Jerusalem Journey, an NCSY summer program specially designed for public school students, which Rabbi Burg headed in its
early days and subsequently guided for many years. The other program, JSU, the Jewish Student Union, was created by Rabbi Burg from the ground up. The idea of Jewish culture clubs in nonyeshivah high schools is one that we now take for granted, but when Rabbi Burg first launched the program, it was a radical concept. Rabbi Burg knew just where to find Jewish teens: JSU met them in school during their weekly club hours and empowered them with the message of their own heritage and a mission to “do something Jewish.”
In fact, every NCSY program bears the marks of Rabbi Burg’s leadership and insight. Rabbi Burg literally changed the face of NCSY, rebranding the organization with a new look, making it more relevant to today’s teens. The professional development of NCSY was always of the utmost importance to Rabbi Burg, driving him to have systems of metrics and measurements developed. He brought
NCSY summer programs to new heights, enabling more teens than ever to benefit from these meaningful and transformative experiences. (If a weekend with NCSY can do so much good, imagine what a month with NCSY can do!) While he was strengthening and unifying international NCSY, Rabbi Burg simultaneously managed to foster the sense of independence that the regions treasure. A culture of “unified with independence” is not easy to create, but under Rabbi Burg’s direction, the NCSY regions enjoyed a spirit of “all for one and one for all” with their parent body.
There are many factors underlying Rabbi Burg’s success within NCSY. Among them are his God-given talents, to be sure, but equally important is his abiding love for every Jew. Rabbi Burg’s effective management style is based largely on empowering his employees to use their individual skills to the fullest in pursuit of a common goal. But perhaps the greatest secret of Rabbi Burg’s success is
the unshakable belief that NCSY is literally God’s work. Rabbi Burg knows beyond a doubt that God has placed us in a unique position to effect change in Klal Yisrael. In the words of Pirkei Avot, “Im ein ani li, mi li?” If I don’t act, who will? And “Im lo achshav, eimatai?” If we don’t act now, what will be lost in the delay? Rabbi Burg’s hallmark has been unparalleled passion and zeal fueled by his tremendous ahavat Hashem. NCSY has been so successful under Rabbi Burg because there simply was no alternative. We celebrate Rabbi Burg’s tenure, which has infinitely enriched NCSY. On behalf of the thousands of staff members and volunteer advisors, as well as the tens of thousands of teens, their parents and the lay leaders whose lives Rabbi Burg has touched over the years, we express our profound gratitude and wish him success in his new position as the eastern director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. May he go mechayil el chayil, from strength to greater strength, in the next chapter of his career. g
Why did the Chofetz Chaim & R' Chaim Ozer Grodzinsky start EZRAS TORAH?
In an ideal world, those who devote their lives to Torah would be recognized as the spiritual heroes that they are. Support Ezras Torah's Tzedakah Programs and make that ideal a reality.
In Eretz Yisrael today, Ezras Torah provides Housing, Emergency Medical
I would like to help Ezras Torah!
Funds, Wedding Orphan Assistance, Yom Tov Grants and Special Need's Grants and Loans.
Make a life of Torah devotion and commitment an everlasting edifice that will bring us the Rabbonim, Dayanim and Leaders of tomorrow!
NEW BOOKS FROM
To Mourn a Child: Jewish Responses to Neonatal and Childhood Death
Edited by Jeffrey Saks and Joel B. Wolowelsky OU Press
ABible scholar once commented that the Bible would have been profoundly incomplete had it not included the Book of Job. Written according to tradition by Moses, the Book of Job describes the suffering that befalls people for no apparent reason.
Nachmanides observed that our inability to account for the suffering of
the guiltless represents the biggest challenge to, and unanswered question within, religious faith. These questions assail any honest, sensitive religious person, but often we distract ourselves—after all, why dwell on them? Nothing, however, shocks or focuses us more intently on these agonizing questions than the death of a child.
In the realm of human experience, the death of a child is surely one of the most emotionally wrenching events. For a parent, the grief and pain are unendurable. In To Mourn a Child, Jeffrey Saks and Joel Wolowelsky have assembled an anthology which consists primarily of personal accounts written by parents who experienced
the death of a child. In addition, there are essays by rabbis and healthcare professionals and selections from traditional Jewish sources.
Many currents flow through the book: theological and philosophical quandaries; psychological and emotional stresses that beset parents, siblings and friends; halachic analysis that strives to combine sensitivity with fidelity to tradition; and, ultimately, inspiring expressions of courage and the indomitable will to accept God’s inscrutable judgment.
Parents do the impossible as they give articulate expression to an unspeakable pain with poetic eloquence, profundity and raw honesty. Each personal account chronicles a story of heartbreak and healing, helplessness and heroism, hopelessness and hope. These are turbulent pieces, as the parents describe the roller coaster of emotions, the bottomless grief and the
eventual coming to terms with the inevitable. Each story is moving, each tragedy unique. Collectively, they help us imagine the unimaginable. There is no closure, and there are no easy answers; indeed, there are no answers at all.
To Mourn a Child: Jewish Responses to Neonatal and Childhood Death is not an easy book to read, but once you start, it will be hard for you to put it down as you are drawn in by each deeply personal narrative. Written by ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances, these selections are eloquent testimony to the strength of the human spirit and the redemptive power of Judaism.
Vision From the Prophet and Counsel From the Elders:
A Survey of Nevi’im and Ketuvim
By Hayyim J. Angel OU Press
Nevi’imand Ketuvim, the books of the Prophets and Holy Writings, together with the Five Books of Moses, comprise the broad canvas on which the history, destiny and spiritual mission of the Jewish people are limned. In this survey of Nevi’im and Ketuvim, Rabbi Hayyim Angel achieves a rare combination of breadth and depth. While focusing on broad themes and universal messages, the treatment is far from superficial or perfunctory. Rabbi Angel presents at least one chapter on each book of Nevi’im and Ketuvim, with each chapter analyzing in depth a representative aspect of the book. Using primarily peshat, the plain meaning of the text, Rabbi Angel marshals the Talmud and Midrash, traditional commentaries and modern scholarship in expressing a view of Scripture that is creative as well as subtle and nuanced. With his direct and engaging style, Rabbi Angel conveys his erudition and wealth of knowledge to the reader in a most enjoyable fashion. Here is a small sampling of Rabbi Angel’s thought-provoking conclusions: Joshua’s flaws made him a more effective leader than Moses to bring the people into the Land of Israel.
The Book of Jonah challenges us to be absolutely committed to God while respecting other people who espouse different beliefs.
The Book of Ecclesiastes, with all of its internal inconsistencies and its seeming contradictions with the Torah, uniquely reflects the paradoxical human condition. Its inclusion in Tanach elevates human perception to the realm of the sacred, joining revelation and received wisdom as aspects of religious truth.
A prolific author, admired teacher and recognized scholar in the field of Tanach, Rabbi Angel compiled many of his scholarly articles to include in Vision From the Prophet and Counsel From the Elders The result is that each chapter is a self-contained essay that can stand on its own, while the book as a whole is an integrated study of Nevi’im and Ketuvim which will delight and educate lay people and scholars alike.
Vision From the Prophet and Counsel From the Elders: A Survey of Nevi’im and Ketuvim presents a rewarding, comprehensive and enjoyable survey of Nevi’im and Ketuvim. g
@ Work
By Eli Gersten Kosher
Do you have a work-related kashrut question? Send it to ja@ou.org, and it may be featured in the next kosher@work, a column dedicated to exploring the multitude of kashrut issues that confronts the Orthodox Jew in the workplace.
Q:What are my options for getting a cup of coffee at work on Pesach? Can I use the office coffee machine since it is only used for coffee?
A:Unless you prepare in advance, procuring a hot cup of coffee at work on Pesach could be a challenge. The office coffee machine is likely to be unusable on Pesach. Although the popular Keurig machines have many flavors that are certified kosher for Passover, they may not be brewed on Pesach in a machine in which nonkosher-for-Passover flavors are also brewed. Even if your office has the “old style” coffee brewers and you are certain that throughout the year only plain, unflavored coffee grounds are brewed in it, it would still not be acceptable to use the coffee pot on Pesach. This is because it is likely that at some point the pot came into contact with a chametz mug or was rinsed in a chametz sink. Throughout the year these are not concerns, but on Pesach we tend to be more stringent. While
Eli Gersten is a rabbinic coordinator for OU Kosher and recorder of OU Policy.
cold water (from a sink or cooler that is not kosher for Pesach) does not pose a halachic problem. However, you should not take cold water from a cooler that has one spout for both hot and cold water. You can also use bottled water (which doesn’t require special Pesach certification).
generally nonkosher foods can be nullified, even a minute amount of chametz cannot be nullified on Pesach. Therefore, on Pesach, even the office hot water urn or the hot water spout on the office cooler should not be used, since they were probably used to make non-kosher-for-Passover hot cereals and soups.
To make coffee in the office on Pesach, you can purchase your own portable electric kettle to make hot water. Filling the electric kettle with
Bring your own supply of instant or powdered coffee that is certified kosher for Pesach. Even if your office happens to have an acceptable brand of coffee, only use coffee from an unopened canister as an open canister is probably contaminated with chametz Closed packets of plain white sugar can be used, even without kosher for Passover certification, but you should not use a communal sugar dispenser. Packets of artificial sweetener without Pesach certification may not be used, since they contain fillers which are kitniyot or even actual chametz
Bring milk or cream that is certified kosher for Pesach since milk may contain chametz vitamins or have come into contact with equipment that is also used for chametz With a little bit of planning, you can enjoy a hot cup of coffee at the office, even on Pesach. g
Rabbi
Israel By Peter Abelow
On and Off the Beaten Track in . . .
Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu
A religious kibbutz that is a world leader in the technology of organic farming
Photo courtesy of Bio-Tour Sde Eliyahu
“GOD TOOK THE MAN and placed him in the Garden of Eden to work it and to guard it” (Bereishit 2:15).
In Israel, the words of the Bible come alive in many ways. Indeed, to members of Sde Eliyahu, a religious kibbutz in the Emek Hama’ayanot region, the above verse springs to life as a contemporary imperative for us to see this world as our Gan Eden and to guard and preserve it.
Sde Eliyahu was founded in 1939 as one of more than fifty Homa U’Migdal (Tower and Stockade) settlements established between 1936 and 1939 prior to the implementation of the 1939 White Paper in which the British severely restricted further Jewish immigration to Palestine. To forestall Arab attacks and British opposition, these settlements needed to be built by surprise. Literally overnight, pioneers would move to the chosen site, usually selected for strategic considerations, and erect a wall and watchtower, thus satisfying the technical requirements for a settlement according to British law. (Hence the name Homa U’Migdal.) Living in tents, under primitive conditions, the settlers would quickly establish an agricultural infrastructure around the new “settlement.” Many of these settlements grew into the kibbutzim of today. Some, like Sde Eliyahu, were established as religious kibbutzim. The idealistic founders of the religious kibbutzim believed that the collective lifestyle is of paramount importance and were deeply committed to Torah and to building Eretz Yisrael.
Peter Abelow is a licensed tour guide and the associate director of Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel. Keshet specializes in creating and running inspiring family and group tours that make Israel come alive “Jewishly.” He can be reached at 011.972.2.671.3518 or at peter@keshetisrael.co.il.
Sde Eliyahu is located just south of Beit She’an in a cluster of religious kibbutzim which also includes Tirat Zvi, Ein HaNatziv and Shluchot. In 1970, Mario Levy, a Sde Eliyahu kibbutz member, began investigating organic farming. Aware that poisonous fertilizers were not only leaving an impact on the crops but were also slowly seeping into the earth as well as into the water table, the residents of Sde Eliyahu sought a way to raise their crops organically—without pesticides. As more and more members of the kibbutz bought into the idea of pesticide-free agriculture, Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu began to emerge as a pioneer in the field. The kibbutz, which prides itself on “working with, not against nature,” grows all seven varieties of plants that the Land of Israel was blessed with in the Torah. It also raises dairy cattle and poultry, and is on the cutting edge of research and development in organic farming.
As I discovered on a recent visit to Sde Eliyahu, home to some 150 families, nature itself provides the secret to eliminating the need for damaging and poisonous pesticides. The kibbutznicksturned-scientists slowly began to discover that “good bugs” found in nature would attack the pests that were harming the crops. The kibbutz established Bio–Bee (www.biobee.com), a company that mass produces beneficial insects and mites for agricultural purposes. It also raises bumblebees for natural pollination in greenhouses and open-field crops. In state-of-the-art greenhouses, Bio–Bee provides “good bugs” with optimal conditions to reproduce. The concept is simple: undo the damage of chemical pest control and encourage what nature intended. Bio–Bee exports eight different species of biological control agents, plus pollinating bumblebees, to thirty-two countries ranging from Japan to Chile. About 45 percent of its market is domestic. In Israel alone, BioBee products have enabled sweet pepper farmers to reduce the use of chemical pesticides by 75 percent.
Today, Sde Eliyahu remains a purely agricultural kibbutz. All of its industries are directly related to agriculture. It is exciting to see how in the twenty-first century a group of idealistic religious people think “green” and tena-
Photos: www.Sasson-Photos.com
Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu grows crops organically, using beneficial mites and insects to devour harmful crop pests.
ciously cling to their ideals of communal living coupled with preservation of the land and nature.
Recently, the kibbutz began offering tours to the general public, providing a glimpse into organic agriculture. Called Bio–Tours, the two-hour-long tours include fascinating hands-on demonstrations and exhibits of live insects and bumblebees. The Bio-Bee tour guides are well-versed in organic agriculture and ecological solutions and are articulate, passionate and inspiring. Tours are geared to participants of all ages and are available in English (but must be arranged in advance). Although winter is an ideal season for a visit as the temperatures in the Beit She’an region are moderate, a trip to the region during the spring or fall can be very enjoyable as well.
There is much to see and do in the Beit She’an region. The excavations at the National Park, just a few miles from Sde Eliyahu, are in and of themselves worth a trip there. The ancient synagogue mosaics at Beit Alpha and on the grounds of nearby Ein HaNatziv offer glimpses into thriving Jewish communities in the period of the Mishnah and Talmud.
Sde Eliyahu reveals the possibilities of living in harmony with nature and promoting a healthier and better life. The combination of an Orthodox lifestyle with organic farming in a vibrant, versatile and cooperative community is certainly worth experiencing. I cannot think of a more powerful way to combat the popular anti-Israel sentiments so prevalent in the world today than advancing the image of Israel as a pioneer in agriculture, technology and medicine, working for the benefit of mankind and the world. Understanding a side of modern Israel that is creative, vibrant, innovative and on the cutting edge of the world’s leading technology is almost as important as viewing the country’s ancient past. “Etz chayim Hi, this is our living Torah,” “Ki miTzion teitzei Torah, and from Zion it shall go forth.” g
To contact Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, visit www.bio-tour.com or call 972.4.609.6986 or 972.54.564.0971.
JOIN THE KOSHER SOCIAL NETWORK.
Working in the organic fields
Photo courtesy of Bio-Tour Sde Eliyahu
Health By Rachel Wizenfeld
CONFESSIONSOF A
Kosher Organic Junkie
Melding my Berkeley organic roots with the realities of a pesticide-ridden kosher kitchen
Growing up, I didn’t even know what skim milk was. Or 2 percent, for that matter. We always drank full-fat, organic milk—straight from the farm it seemed. For a time, we had jars of milk delivered to our door every Sunday by a milk truck. It was my brother’s job to rinse the empty jars, once finished, and set them at the doorstep for next week’s collection.
Lettuce came straight from the farmer’s market: bright, green and leafy, with plenty of dirt scattered around the roots—and so many types! There was butter lettuce and bibb lettuce and radicchio and mesclun. Romaine was a favorite, but not clean romaine hearts; no, we went for the dirt-encrusted forest green bunches that had more nutrients. “The darker and leafier, the better,” my father would say with a gleam in his eye.
Rachel Wizenfeld is the founder of PopWriter.net. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
Bug checking was just starting to come into vogue for our small Jewish community in Berkeley, California (this was in the early 90s), and my mother dutifully soaked lettuce and fresh broccoli in salt water and rinsed them well. But checking for bugs under the light wasn’t yet on the books, or at least the books we were reading. We were more conscious of avoiding pesticides than bugs in our vegetables.
Organic wasn’t just for eating, either. We used organic shampoos, chemical-free toothpaste and cloth diapers. We even had our clothes handsewn by mom until we became picky preteens. We had a compost heap in the back where we deposited banana peels and other organic trash, then used the resulting dirt to fertilize our apple trees. We recycled, took public transportation and went to beach cleanups on the weekends. We were children of Berkeley in every sense of the word, except for two critical areas: how we voted (Republican) and how we practiced religion (Orthodox Judaism).
So it was not a shock that when my family mainstreamed—moving to Passaic, New Jersey, and switching us kids from public school to yeshivah day schools—we still clung to our green organic roots. And while my eating habits did deteriorate when I attended seminary in Israel and Touro College in Manhattan and began to fend for myself (at my lowest point I made cookie sandwiches for lunch, spreading chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter), I always favored green salads and whole wheat anything.
Things changed, though, once I had my own kids. Suddenly, organic was more than a familiar buzzword; it became something that could potentially affect my children’s health. I also moved to Los Angeles with my native LA husband, where healthconscious friends and the proliferation of Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods helped feed my habit.
Within a short time, I became a kosher organic junkie. I joined a CSA (community-supported agriculture) farm share, where for $30 we would get a weekly box of farm-fresh vegetables with the dirt still on them dropped off at our door. I bought nontoxic floor soap and clipped a list of the “dirty dozen”—the top twelve pesticide-ridden fruits and vegetables—to our refrigerator. I ditched sweets and ice cream (too many unnatural flavorings) and started shelling out more of my grocery budget for organic potatoes, peppers and lettuce.
But organic lettuce means lots of bugs. And hard-to-check, farm-fresh kale was often covered with bugs that clung to each leaf for dear life. I was frequently throwing out half of our CSA share produce because the organic broccoli, cilantro and other unidentifiable leafy greens were too intimidating to check. Once I had a real moment of fear when a head of lettuce, which I had soaked, checked and used
We were children of Berkeley in every sense of the word, except for two critical areas: how we voted (Republican) and how we practiced religion (Orthodox Judaism).
in a salad the night before, suddenly revealed many bugs when I checked it in the daytime. I assumed that I had just missed the bugs in my fatigue the night before. So in the battle between eating organic and halachah, halachah unequivocally won out. I went back to using the clean, pristine, nonorganic romaine hearts from the supermarket. The kale had to go too. And I finally canceled our CSA membership.
It’s a tough life being a kosher organic junkie. You want to kasher your oven properly, but you hate using EasyOff, which is on the Environmental Working Group’s (EWG) hall of shame list for its harsh chemicals. You want to buy organic eggs, but at least a third of them have blood spots. Your friends are making elegant Shabbat desserts which you’d love to replicate, but pareve whipped cream makes you shudder (many pareve whipped creams and ice creams are filled with chemicals). Even sprinkles for your child’s birthday cake have colorings like Red #40 and Yellow #6, food dyes that allegedly trigger ADHD in children and are up for a possible ban in the United Kingdom.
And then comes the old debate: We ate it and we’re okay. Most shuls have a designated “candy man” who gives out lollipops and candies to children—and I can guarantee you he isn’t giving out organic, naturally-colored candy! So why should I be so crazy?
And the truth is, I’m really not that crazy. I eat in other people’s homes and enjoy their food. I spent the summer in Monsey at my kollel brother’s house and ate their yogurts filled with colorings and additives. And in a pinch, I’ll use nonorganic apples and potatoes when cooking or baking—top offenders on the dirty dozen pesticide list—though I do think twice about taking seconds.
So I do what I can. I make more spinach salads than romaine, since triple-washed organic spinach is easy
to check and doesn’t have the pesticides of nonorganic romaine lettuce. I use puff pastry no more than once a year and never use margarine. I cook dried beans from scratch to avoid cans and read labels on our food carefully— no artificial flavoring in anything is my goal. And I started buying organic milk. Who’s to say we’ll be healthier in the long run? But at the very least, a Berkeley girl’s got to try g
WHY ORGANIC?
Organic refers to food grown and processed without chemicals, food additives, hormones or pesticides. On an organic farm, animals are raised without use of antibiotics and growth hormones and are fed organic foods. Organic farming also protects the environment, specifically the land and water supply. Essentially, organic farming is growing food the way it has been grown throughout most of history.
Some people also choose organic nonfood products such as laundry detergents and cleaning products because they believe the chemicals found in regular detergents and cleaning products can have an adverse effect on their and their families’ health.
Residue from pesticides, which are essentially toxins designed to kill insects, is found on a majority of ordinary fruits and vegetables, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
KOSHER & ORGANIC
While a recent study out of Stanford University did not find a significant health difference for those who eat organic, their pesticide levels were found to be much lower than those who don’t, proving that pesticide consumption remains in a person’s system. Excessive pesticide consumption has been linked to health issues such as headaches and added strain on weakened immune systems in adults and developmental delays, behavioral disorders and motor dysfunction in children.
Important note: The benefits of eating fruits and vegetables far outweigh the risks of ingesting pesticides, according to the Environmental Working Group (EWG). While lowering your pesticide consumption may be helpful, it is not healthy to avoid fruits and vegetables for the sake of avoiding pesticides.
The US organic industry continues to grow quite impressively, surpassing the $30 billion mark last year. The organic industry grew by 9.5 percent overall in 2011, outpacing the sales increase of comparable conventionally produced food and nonfood items, according to the OTA (Organic Trade Association). This explosion of organic food has also led to a small-but-growing kosher organic industry. The growth is evident in the number of new kosher organic products introduced each year to the market, many of which were present at this past year’s Kosherfest, an international trade show of kosher food. Additionally, nearly 2,000 products manufactured by Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s bear the OU certification symbol, reflecting the growing interest in kosher organic food.
M t the Hanaus:
Providing Kosher, Ethically Produced Meat and Poultry
By Rachel Wizenfeld
Some want to avoid hormones, some care about ethical treatment of workers, and some just want a really good steak. It’s the latter group that makes up the majority of Naftali Hanau’s customers, though that wasn’t the main reason he was drawn into the business of providing pasture-raised, hormone-free kosher meat and poultry.
When Hanau met his wife, Anna, they were both working on organic farms. Once they married, they planned to start their own vegetable and chicken farm in Rochester, New York. Hanau began studying shechitah but soon realized that it would be extremely challenging to live a frum life while running a sustainable working farm—impossible to walk to shul, for starters, he jokes. At the same time their plan stopped seeming realistic, Hanau started noticing a void in the market for sustainably raised kosher meat.
Hanau opened Grow and Behold in the summer of 2010, a company that distributes sustainably raised kosher meats. “We are about ethical food,” says Hanau.
Sustainably raised meat can mean many things, including pasture-raising for both cattle and chickens, which besides being more humane, allows the animals to eat a wider variety of foods and exercise their muscles. It also creates more flavor in the final, shechted product. Grow and Behold works with a number of small farms that raise animals according to their standards (in ways that support the natural environment and respect the natural instincts of the animals). The company’s unique approach, detailed on its web site (GrowandBehold.com), includes fair pay for workers, feeding the chickens and cattle non-GMO feed, avoiding antibiotics and keeping animals calm during processing.
While there are kosher companies on the market producing organic chicken and meat, Grow and Behold is not certified organic. “Chickens can be confined to cages, fed organic corn and still be marked ‘free-range organic,’” says Hanau. “Organic standards are not the be all and end all [to healthy meat and chicken],” Hanau notes, adding that for many of the small farms they work with, the cost of organic certification is often too high to bear.
There are myriad challenges to the job, including making sure they have enough animals at the right time, finding the right farmers, coordinating between the farmers and the meat plants, transporting the animals and moving them through the shechitah process efficiently.
The meat, slaughtered under OU supervision with OU-approved personnel, is delivered to consumers nationwide, but primarily in the tri-state area. Grow and Behold also provides meat and poultry to several high-end New York kosher restaurants. buying clubs and customers outside and have regular away as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Their warehouse is in Brooklyn, where the Hanaus also live (with chickens in their backyard), and spends a lot of the road supervising ordinating operations.
On the web tomers can choose succulent steaks, lamb cuts and plump chickens and turkeys— all OU-certified. Though prices
higher than those at your local supermarket (chicken costs almost double and beef weighs in at 40 to 60 percent more per pound), Hanau claims his prices are comparable to what you would find at a high-end kosher butcher shop.
But for those looking for ultimate flavor and texture, the price is well worth it. While Hanau admits that it’s often hard for customers to get over the initial price hurdle, once people try his meat, “they’re hooked.”
Hanau says, “We founded Grow and Behold Foods because we wanted the kosher community to have the same option of buying ethically and sustainably produced meat that exists in the nonkosher world.” g
Naftali Hanau noticed a void in the kosher market for sustainably raised kosher meats. So he opened Grow and Behold, and now provides kosher consumers with the option of purchasing ethically and sustainably produced meat and poultry.
Rachel Wizenfeld founded PopWriter.net. She lives with her family in Los Angeles.
y Rabbi Shmuel Gold b by Gefen fe ess, Goldin OU Pr y R b by i Kahn Ar Rabbi Gefe fe ess, OU Pr en
of volume third This Text Te Torah To the ing continues series into journeys in-depth profound Using portions. perplexing and issues spring his Rabbi board, to approaches classical contemporary presents and thought-provoking Finally, well.
popular the k Unlocckprovide to Torah weekly the philosophical as questions textual the surveys Goldin text the explicating as approaches, connecdoes Why narrative the Holidays the to ship speech of image Va Sefer fe mystical chassidism
drop to seem Vayikra of Book the What Torah? the of flow relation our about us teach does role What world? physical this Divine the of realization the in play In being? human the Eden of Echoes ayyikra combines Kahn Rabbi , explora kabbalah of tions intellectual highly a with do relation–the and and
popular The HaRa Shiurei into insights sophisticated Talmudic of world the (teachings) shiurim on Soloveitchik, B. Joseph Rabbi
HaRav presents series and Torah the based scholarship Rav, the by given tower the -
personality rabbinic ing scholars Renowned Rabbi and Genack the of Co-Editors are
century. last the of Menachem Rabbi Schachter Hershel newest The series.
u be raised are tions tween critical and narrative constructed is study Each of discussion continued
o study, Torah to approach literature psychology, applies of some illuminate to history
and the
va la le yo b Avai r Torah eternal the time. our of issues encourage to narrative. Torah the broad-minded he as Jewish most difficult narratives of the Biblical text. r o re
oks of Jewish Bo and pra ucat at thated at and enlighten enrich thought ayer ay inspire, te,
WellnessReport
By Shira Isenberg
QMy asthmatic husband constantly complains about the “poisonous” sprays and cleaning products I use to clean our home. Do they really pose a danger?
AThis question is especially pertinent now, when a bottle of bleach becomes our constant companion as we get down and dirty in the cabinets in the name of Pesach cleaning. One might think that because cleaning products are sold over-thecounter, they must be safe and nontoxic. But is that really the case? Your husband is probably complaining because, as someone with asthma, he is more sensitive to chemicals. These types of reactions are real and well documented. Most cleaning agents contain ingredients that will irritate the mucous membranes (the linings in your nose, mouth, eyes and ears) and, in some cases, trigger allergies. In fact, while ev-
Shira Isenberg is a registered dietitian and writer with a private nutrition practice in Nashville, Tennessee. She has a master’s degree in public health nutrition from Hunter College in New York.
IS PESACH CLEANING to Your Health? HAZARDOUS
idence shows that cleaning products can impact the respiratory system, cleaning agents can also cause other health problems including disrupting the hormone system as well as increasing the risk of developing cancer.
Much of the data comes from studies of professionals who work with toxic cleaning chemicals on a daily basis. According to the European Community Respiratory Health Survey II (ECRHSII), custodians and nurses who use bleach, ammonia or spray cleaning products on a regular basis are the professional groups with the highest risk of developing asthma. But if you clean your home with over-the-counter products, surely you’re at very low risk, right? Not necessarily. A study of 3,500 ECRHSII participants who used cleaning products at least once a week to clean their homes found that they were more likely to report symptoms of asthma and wheezing. And if they cleaned four times or more per week using spray agents, they were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with asthma. (Note: spray-cleaning products were more likely than creams or pow-
ders to trigger asthmatic symptoms.)
How you use your cleaning products can also determine how they affect you. A 2008 study published in Occupational Medicine attributes higher rates of chemical exposure and more adverse symptoms in “domestic cleaners” compared to industrial cleaners to the limited training of the former. While industrial cleaners undergo extensive training, you most likely use a cleaning method that works for you. Unlike an industrial cleaner, you probably rarely wear protective clothing of any sort (including a mask or gloves) when cleaning your home and hardly ever choose products based on safety ratings.
Educate yourself about household cleaners by looking up their respective Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). These forms provide critical information about use, possible negative effects, hazardous chemicals and what to do in case of emergency exposure.
Be aware of the products used in your home, even if you’re not the one doing the cleaning. Exposure to cleaning products even after the fact can cause adverse effects. In one case, a pharmacist exhibited severe symptoms of asthma while at work in reaction to the cleaning products used by the night-cleaning crew. His symptoms improved when the crew switched to a
cleaner without the offending ingredient.
You might think you can avoid all this simply by selecting “green” cleaning products. Instead of bleach or detergents, they use other ingredients such as hydrogen peroxide, citric acid and alkyl polyglucoside. However, these cleaning products are not necessarily safe or healthy to use either. Firstly, they are not required to list all of the ingredients they contain, so you can’t be sure that harmful ingredients haven’t been left off the list. Secondly, there’s no government regulation of “organic” or “green” products to ensure they really are as natural and green as they claim. Green cleaning products may include petroleum distillates, specifically benzene, which has been linked to cancer. Additionally, fragrances from natural products like pine oil and limonene can cause skin reactions.
The good news is that many green cleaning product manufacturers submit to voluntary certification by standardizing agencies. The
Be aware of the products used in your home, even if you’re not the one doing the cleaning. Exposure to cleaning products even after the fact can cause adverse effects.
Dirty Secrets about Cleaning Agents
DISINFECTANTS (includes bleach): Considered the most dangerous type of cleaning agents, they kill bacteria and other microorganisms. Disinfectants can also be corrosive and cause allergic dermatitis (skin reactions) or other negative health effects.
DETERGENTS: They lower the surface tension of water so it binds to the dirt you want removed instead of sticking to other water molecules. Detergents are getting better at doing their job, which means they may also be tougher on your skin and mucous membranes.
ALKALINE AGENTS (includes caustic acid—found in oven cleaners— and ammonia): may irritate eyes, skin and mucous membranes.
ACIDS (includes hydrochloric acid): may irritate mucous membranes.
PERFUMES AND SCENTS: may cause allergic reactions and irritation.
Laundry Warning
You may not think too much about the safety of your laundry detergent. While the enzymes that help detergent clean your clothing are generally thought to be safe, be wary of laundry detergent pods around children. Their colorful, candy-like shape led almost 500 children to ingest laundry detergent pods in just one month (May-June 2012), according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Store them far out of reach of children.
STILL JEWISH FAMILY OWNED AND INDEPENDENTLY OPERATED
PROVIDER OF THE OU
Levaya
FUNERAL PROGRAM IN NEW YORK
GRAVES AND INTERMENTS IN ISRAEL
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) endorses cleaning products with the Design for the Environment (DfE) logo; all of the chemicals they contain have been researched by scientists to be the safest possible. A list of all DfE products is available at http://www.epa.gov/dfe.
So cleaning products can be harmful to your health, but you still need to get rid of that grime. How can you minimize risk while you clean for Peasch?
• Try simple homemade cleaners known to be safe like water, vinegar, club soda or baking soda with a little elbow grease.
• Use regular soap over antibacterial soap.
• Use liquids or powders over sprays.
• Wear a protective mask and gloves while cleaning.
• Keep the room you are cleaning well-ventilated.
• Take breaks to reduce exposure.
• Only disinfect surfaces people are likely to touch (e.g., doorknobs). You do not typically need to use a disinfectant on floors or walls. g
Does Pesach cleaning take a toll on our mental health?
The thought of making Pesach causes some people to break out in a sweat even before Chanukah rolls around. Does our community’s obsession with Pesach cleaning take a toll on our mental health?
It depends on the extent of that obsession, says Dvora Entin, LCSW, program coordinator of Aleinu—Jewish Family & Children’s Service in Phoenix, Arizona. According to Entin, it’s normal for everyone to experience anxiety to some degree, especially around Pesach when there really is a lot to get done in a short period of time. However, when the frequency, intensity and duration of the worry are disproportionate to the actual source of worry, or when anxiety interferes with daily functioning, then it becomes a problem. She suggests looking out for the following symptoms:
• Experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety such as restlessness, irritability, racing pulse, sleep disturbances, difficulty concentrating or constant worry
• Feeling stressed to the point where you cannot focus on anything else
• Cleaning areas you have already cleaned out of fear that “you didn’t get it right”
• Dreading the impending holiday
“Cleaning for Pesach is not going to cause obsessive compulsive disorder in a healthy individual,” assures Entin. “However, if someone already has OCD or OCDlike tendencies, this type of environment where everyone becomes obsessive about cleaning can heighten those symptoms.”
If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, talk to a rabbi or mental health professional about appropriate ways to manage anxiety when it comes to Pesach cleaning.
Children and young adults ages 9-21
Camp activities with typically developing campers
Young adults ages 22-30
Participants enjoy job satisfaction and develop life skills with one-on-one job coaches
Children ages 8-16
Campers are placed within a typical bunk
By Norene Gilletz TheChef’sTable
A Non-Gebrokts, q
Gluten-Free q Passover
Even experienced cooks find Passover overwhelming because of all the extra preparations, shopping, cooking and meal planning.
To minimize stress, plan your menus and shopping lists early. This year, why not add some gluten-free, wheatfree recipes to your regular repertoire? Wheat-free recipes are also ideal for those who refrain from eating gebrokts (matzah or matzah meal combined with water or other liquids) on the first seven days of Passover.
Many Passover recipes are naturally gluten-free. Additionally, some of my favorite recipes can be adapted with simple modifications. Wheat-free does not have to mean taste-free!
S U B S T I T U T I O N S :
• Baked spaghetti squash strands make a terrific substitute for noodles. Top with tomato sauce or mix together with cottage cheese and butter or margarine.
• Fried eggplant slices can be used instead of pasta to make lasagna that is gluten-free/non-gebrokts
• To replace matzah meal as a coating for fish or chicken, substitute finely ground almonds, potato starch or crushed Passover potato chips.
• Instead of matzah meal as a binder in hamburgers and meatballs, substitute finely-grated potato. A medium potato is enough to bind about two pounds of ground meat.
• To replace alcoholic beverages in cooking and baking, substitute apple, orange or grape juice.
Norene Gilletz of Toronto, Canada, is the author of nine cookbooks, including The NEW Food Processor Bible: 30th Anniversary Edition (Vancouver, Canada, 2011) and Norene’s Healthy Kitchen (Vancouver, Canada, 2009). She is a freelance food writer, culinary consultant, cookbook editor, lecturer and culinary spokesperson.
• Use potato starch to thicken gravies and sauces. Substitute one tablespoon potato starch for two tablespoons flour or cornstarch in non-Passover recipes when converting them for Passover use.
• Substitute one tablespoon potato starch for two tablespoons matzah meal in kugels and latkes.
• To replace one cup of flour in baking, use 5/8 to 3/4 cup (ten to twelve tablespoons) potato starch.
• To replace one cup of cake meal in Passover sponge cakes, use one cup finely-ground almonds.
• For one large egg (in baking/cooking), substitute two egg whites. You can usually replace up to half the eggs in baking recipes.
• When converting your baking recipes, use Passover baking powder and baking soda. They contain potato starch, whereas regular baking powder and baking soda contain cornstarch.
• Passover Icing Sugar: Process one cup granulated sugar with 1/2 tablespoon potato starch in a food processor or blender for two to three minutes. The texture will be grainier than regular icing sugar.
EGGPLANT MOCK CHOPPED LIVER
Yields 8 servings of 1/2 cup each
Enjoy this gluten-free vegetarian spread on Passover—or any time! Serve it on gluten-free matzah crackers or scoop it onto crisp salad greens as an appetizer. A food processor helps speeds up preparation.
1 large eggplant (about 1 ½ pounds/750 grams)
2 large onions, cut in chunks
2 cups mushrooms
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 hard-boiled large eggs, halved
1/2 cup walnuts or pecans (omit for a nut-free version)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Prick the eggplant with a fork. Microwave on high for 7 to 8 minutes, until soft. Let cool. (Or cut in half lengthwise and place cut-side down on a broiling rack. Broil the eggplant about 4 inches from the heat for 15 minutes. Don’t turn over.)
In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, coarsely chop the onions and mushrooms, using 4 or 5 quick on/off pulses.
Heat the oil in a skillet on medium-high heat. Transfer the onions and mushrooms to the skillet and sauté until nicely browned, about 7 to 8 minutes.
Scoop out the eggplant pulp with a spoon and place in the processor bowl. Discard the skin.
Add the onions, mushrooms, eggs, nuts, salt and pepper. Process with quick on/off pulses, just until combined. Chill several hours or overnight for the best flavor.
Note: Keeps 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. Don’t freeze.
APRICOT CRANBERRY CHICKEN
Yields 8 servings
Elegant and easy! This dish can be doubled or tripled, so it’s perfect for a crowd. Dried fruits, ginger, orange juice and balsamic vinegar add a festive touch. Marinating makes the chicken tender and flavorful.
2 chickens (about 3 pounds each), cut in pieces
Salt, pepper, paprika and dried thyme
2 teaspoons minced ginger
4 cloves minced garlic
3/4 to 1 cup dried apricots, cut in quarters
3/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Wash chicken pieces and pat dry with paper towel. Arrange chicken pieces in a single layer in a large baking dish or roasting pan. Lightly sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and thyme. Add garlic and ginger and rub seasonings over chicken on all sides.
Scatter apricots and cranberries over chicken. Drizzle with orange juice, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight.
Preheat oven to 350° F. Bake chicken covered for 1 hour, then uncover and continue to bake for a 1/2 hour longer until glazed and golden, basting occasionally. Drizzle pan juices over chicken to serve.
Note: Reheats and/or freezes well.
Stuffed Spuds
Photos: Estee Gestetner
Hold the Knaidlach:
Sure, many families observe theminhag of not eating gebrokts on Pesach, but why?
By Carol Ungar
The halachah, as formulated in the Gemara and Shulchan Aruch, explicitly states that once matzah is baked, it can no longer become chametz (OC 461:4). Most observant Jews therefore use matzah meal during Passover, enjoying matzah balls, matzah brei and a variety of baked goods containing matzah meal.
Nonetheless, some posekim were concerned that because the matzah dough has to be kneaded within the eighteen-minute limit, this may result in some of the flour not getting fully mixed with the water. The concern is that the resulting flour pocket, while baked, could come into contact with water afterwards and the chametz (leavening) process will then commence. Thus, the custom of not eating gebrokts, or matzah that has come into contact with water or other liquids.
(The word gebrokts literally means “dipped” in Yiddish. And asking someone if they “bruk” is a shorthand way of inquiring whether they eat knaidlach, matzah brei or any other wet matzah food on Passover.)
Other posekim opine that matzot are generally thin and don’t have flour pockets. Adhering to the literal reading of the Shulchan Aruch, German, Sephardic and Lithuanian communities shun the minhag of not eating gebrokts.
While the ban on not bruking is hundreds of years old, it was only in the eighteenth century, when matzah bakers began working more quickly and sloppily than they had in earlier times, that Chabad, among other Chassidic sects, espoused this custom and popularized the practice.
As one could imagine, this minhag has not been without controversy.
Carol Ungar is a full-time mother and freelance writer living in Israel. Her work has appeared in the New York Jewish Week, Tablet, the Jerusalem Post and other publications and web sites.
Many Lithuanian rabbis insisted on eating gebrokts Interestingly, one posek, voicing his opposition to the minhag, argued that the limitations imposed by its adherence would place unnecessary constraints on Pesach menus, thereby diminishing the enjoyment of the yom tov
Not eating gebrokts is a chumrah (stringency), and in general, people tend to be more stringent on Pesach. This is because while forbidden foods are normally subject to nullification, this is not the case with chametz on Pesach. Chametz is not permitted even in minute amounts. On that basis, the Arizal suggested that one who makes an extra effort to avoid chametz on Pesach will be protected from sin throughout the entire year.
There are many variations to the custom of not eating gebrokts In some non-gebrokts homes, on Seder night, the head of the household distributes the matzah along with plastic bags or paper towels to catch the crumbs (to ensure no crumbs come into contact with liquid). Before the soup is served, the matzah is removed from the table, the table is cleared of crumbs and the floor is swept.
Some individuals are careful to avoid even the utensils that were used to prepare gebrokts dishes, while others are not. Some non-brukers won’t spread anything on their matzah. Others will combine matzah with fruit juice, milk or wine, but not water.
Those who keep this custom are careful to emphasize that it is only a chumrah, and not a halachically mandated requirement. For this reason, Chassidim and others who follow this minhag often partake of gebrokts on the eighth day of Pesach, so as to symbolically join their brethren who have not adopted the chumrah And this way, even non-brukers can enjoy traditional-tasting matzah meal-based matzah balls on Pesach.
STUFFED SPUDS
Yields 8 to 10 servings
This is a wonderful way to transform potatoes into a colorful company dish that looks and tastes great. It makes an excellent egg-free side dish for those who want to limit their intake of eggs on Passover.
8 to 10 large baking potatoes (preferably Idaho)
4 green onions or scallions, trimmed and chopped
1 red pepper, diced 3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup shredded zucchini
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed 1/2 to 3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
2 tablespoons minced fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400°F. Scrub potatoes well and pierce skin in several places with a fork. Bake for 1 hour or until tender. Remove from oven and let cool until you can handle them.
While potatoes are baking, heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions, red pepper, carrots and zucchini; sauté 5 minutes, until golden and slightly softened. Add garlic and cook 1 to 2 minutes longer. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
Cut a slice off the top of each potato. Scoop out potato pulp with a spoon, leaving a wall about 1/4-inch thick. Place potato pulp in a large bowl and mash well. Stir in sautéed vegetables, broth, dill, basil, salt and pepper. Potato mixture should be moist but not mushy.
Fill potato skins with potato mixture and arrange in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet. (These can be covered and refrigerated up to a day in advance.)
Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake uncovered for 25 to 30 minutes, until puffed and golden.
Note: Recipe multiplies easily. These reheat well and can be frozen.
Variations:
The potato mixture also makes a terrific filling for blintzes (see recipe below).
Omit green onions, red pepper, carrots, zucchini and garlic. Substitute 2 chopped onions and 1 cup chopped mushrooms; sauté in oil until golden, about 10 minutes. Continue as directed.
For a dairy version, bake potatoes as directed above. When cool enough to handle, scoop out potato pulp and mash with 3 tablespoons butter and 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt. Fill potato skins with potato mixture and sprinkle with shredded cheddar or mozzarella cheese (about 2 tablespoons cheese per potato). Bake until cheese is melted and golden, about 25 minutes.
EGG ROLL BLINTZES
These gluten-free, dairy-free blintzes are very versatile. You can also fill these paper-thin crepes with leftover cooked chicken, meat or mashed potatoes. Cheese blintzes make a nice treat for a dairy meal.
Blintz Leaves
Yields about 14, depending on size
3 large eggs
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 cup potato starch
1/8 teaspoon salt
Rocky Road Brownies
Non-Gebrokts Food: The Newest Trend
What’s Behind the Explosion in Non-GebroktsProducts for Pesach
By Carol Ungar
In recent years, non-gebrokts food has become a major trend.
“People are noticing that matzah meal, a long-standing Pesach baking staple, is appearing less and less in packaged kosher-for-Passover products,” observes Rabbi Nachum Rabinowitz, OU senior rabbinic coordinator.
The OU, which certifies more than 600,000 products produced in 6,000 plants in over eighty countries, is also one of the largest certifiers of Pesach products—both gebrokts and non-gebrokts Walk into the Passover section of any supermarket and you will find the OU certification symbol on a dazzling selection of non-gebrokts delectable jelly rolls, cookies and cakes.
“Many of the Pesach brands that used to prepare matzah-meal based cakes are no longer doing so,” says Rabbi Rabinowitz. “Companies are replacing matzah meal with potato or tapioca starch.”
As the Chassidic population grows (a
Carol Ungar is a full-time mother and freelance writer living in Israel. Her work has appeared in the New York Jewish Week, Tablet, the Jerusalem Post and other publications and web sites.
much-cited 2011 UJA-Federation study revealed that Chassidim are the largest Orthodox group in the greater New York area), so does the number of non-gebrokts eaters. Yet religion isn’t the only cause behind the explosion in non-gebrokts products. Non-gebrokts cuisine is wheat-free; thus, the custom dovetails with another major food trend—the shift toward gluten-free eating.
Gluten, the protein that gives breads their elasticity, has been implicated as the cause of celiac disease, a digestive disorder which can cause a range of unpleasant symptoms. Relatively few people have true celiac disease, but a great many people have celiac-like symptoms. Upon the advice of natural-health practitioners or on their own advisement, many people have adopted the celiac diet, which consists namely of abstaining from foods containing gluten. That means that a lot of people are staying away from “gebrokts” all year round. In fact, some celiac sufferers have been known to amass a supply of gluten-free food during the Pesach season to last the year.
“More and more items are non-gebrokts, as suppliers want to cater to the
Combine the eggs, water and oil in a bowl and whisk together. Add the potato starch and salt and whisk until smooth and no lumps remain. (You can also use your food processor—it takes about 15 seconds to process the batter until smooth.)
Refrigerate the batter for 1 hour or up to 24 hours. This makes the blintzes tender.
Lightly grease an 8-inch non-stick skillet (or spray with non-stick spray). Heat the skillet on medium heat. Stir the batter very well as the potato starch will have settled to the bottom of the bowl.
Pour about 3 tablespoons of batter into the skillet (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan).
Rotate the skillet to spread the batter evenly. Cook about 1 minute, until the top surface is dry. Use a metal spatula to flip the blintz onto the other side and cook 10 seconds longer. Turn out onto a paper towel.
Repeat with the remaining batter, stirring between mak-
gluten-free segment and non-gebrokts items have that crossover appeal,” says Yakov Yarmove, corporate business manager of ethnic marketing and specialty foods for the Supervalu supermarket chain, which has 1,800 stores in thirty-nine states.
Many Passover hotels now advertise non-gebrokts cuisine as a way to attract the largest number of potential guests.
“It also gives the impression that the hotel is taking care of every kosher detail, such as glatt kosher, pas Yisrael, et cetera,” notes Rabbi Eli Gersten, OU rabbinic coordinator and recorder of OU policy. Not everybody is happy with the change, however. Jewish cyber message boards abound with complaints from disgruntled hotel guests upset that they had to endure the Sedarim without matzah ball soup.
Even for those who don’t “mish,” Yiddish slang referring to the practice of eating only home-made food on Pesach, non-gebrokts home cuisine has also evolved. Cookbook author Tamar Ansh has penned two best sellers containing more than 300 non-gebrokts recipes, such as ersatz knaidlachmade from ground chicken.
ing each blintz to prevent the potato starch from settling to the bottom of the bowl. Place waxed paper or parchment between blintz leaves to prevent sticking.
Filling
Yields about 12 servings
2 tablespoons oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1/2 cup shredded carrots
2 cups shredded cabbage
2 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger or 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
1 tablespoon potato starch, if needed
2 tablespoons oil for frying or baking blintzes
Heat oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat. Add onions, celery and mushrooms and stir-fry 3 to 4 minutes, until tender-crisp.
Add carrots, cabbage and garlic and stir-fry 2 minutes longer. Season with salt, pepper and ginger. The mixture should be fairly dry. If necessary, sprinkle with potato starch to absorb extra moisture. Remove from heat and let cool.
Place a heaping spoonful of filling on the lower third of the blintz and roll up, turning in ends. (These can be prepared in advance and refrigerated for a few hours or overnight.)
To fry blintzes: Brown the blintzes in hot oil in a large skillet on all sides, until golden and piping hot.
To bake blintzes: Preheat oven to 400°F. Pour oil into a 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish. Place in oven and heat until oil is piping hot, about 5 minutes. Carefully arrange blintzes seam-side down in baking dish. Bake uncovered until golden, about 20 minutes, turning blintzes over with a metal spatula halfway through cooking. Serve with duck sauce if desired.
Chicken or Meat Filling
Grind 3 or 4 cups cooked leftover chicken or roast brisket. Add 2 eggs and mix to combine. Fried onions add additional flavor.
ROCKY ROAD BROWNIES
Yields 3 to 4 dozen, depending on size
These gluten-free, nut-free brownies are excellent for Passover—or any time of year!
4 eggs
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup potato starch
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups miniature Passover marshmallows
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with non-stick spray.
Beat eggs and sugar until light. Gradually add oil and beat until blended. Sprinkle potato starch, cocoa and salt over egg mixture and mix just until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. Bake for 30 minutes.
Sprinkle miniature marshmallows evenly over brownies and return pan to oven. Bake 5 minutes longer.
Cool completely.
Prepare chocolate glaze as directed. Drizzle over marshmallow topping in a zigzag design.
Cut into small squares and serve in miniature paper cupcake liners.
Note: These freeze well—if they last that long!
Chocolate Glaze
2 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon honey
1 ½ tablespoons hot water or brewed coffee
In a small saucepan, melt chocolate over very low heat. (You can microwave it on medium power, stirring it once or twice.)
Add honey and hot water or coffee. Blend well. Drizzle over marshmallow-topped brownies.
Books
Sefer Shiurei HaRav on Tefillah and Keriat Shema
By Rabbi Menachem Genack
Mesorah Commission Jerusalem, 2011
Reviewed by Yona Reiss
Many volumes have been published on the shiurim of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, the Rav, who served as the pre-eminent rosh yeshivah at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) at Yeshiva University for over forty years. Sefer Shiurei HaRavon Tefillah and Keriat Shema, in Hebrew, is a welcome addition to this corpus. It is not only a collection of the Rav’s shiurim, but an unmistakable labor of love from one of his most devoted students. The beautifully crafted essays are a symphonic blend of poetry and prose, of insight and inspiration.
It is this inextricable connection between prayer and Torah learning that forms the basis of this volume. Rabbi Genack observes that the Rav devoted special attention to the shiurim he gave on the subject of tefillah, precisely because the fusion of prayer with talmud Torah formed the essence of “sheleimut” (wholeness) in the service of Hashem.
Significantly, the poetic flavor of the introduction permeates much of the text, which includes fifty-two essays encompassing the Rav’s insights into Birchat HaTorah, Keriat Shema, tefillah, Keriat HaTorah, the sanctity of the synagogue and other related topics, and enables the reader to experience both the Rav’s lomdus and the religious romance infused in his analyses.
ship of the heart” is a constant requirement; and the theme that accepting Shabbat is another manifestation of preparing to stand before the Divine Presence and therefore requires the same protocol in terms of washing one’s face, hands and feet as the preparations for prayer.
The ideas in the volume are presented with remarkable clarity, numerous proof texts, elegant language, clearly demarcated subheadings and helpful indices. The Rav’s brilliant discourses are magnificently conveyed through a style that is as clear and precise as the substance of the shiurim In addition, Rabbi Genack has contributed many footnotes that elaborate upon the themes in the text in a thoughtful and erudite fashion.
The result is an exquisite volume that appeals to both the mind and the heart. This is immediately apparent in Rabbi Menachem Genack’s introductory essay, in which he writes of how the Rav viewed talmud Torah as an expression of tefillah in the sense that both constitute “standing before Hashem,” and how he epitomized this concept in his noble demeanor and disposition while imparting Torah to his students. Rabbi Genack, CEO of OU Kosher, poignantly writes how during the dark periods of the Rav’s life, the exercise of learning and teaching Torah served as a sweet and reassuring song of prayer. He further notes how the Divine Presence was palpable when the Rav opened up his mouth in front of his legions of students and presented the fervent prayer of his talmud Torah.
Rabbi
Yona Reiss is the dean of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS) of Yeshiva University.
This quality is evident in the opening essay exploring the Rambam’s apparent understanding of two different elements of Birchat HaTorah: a “matir” to permit the enterprise of learning Torah and a fulfillment of the need to integrate the blessing over Torah with the experience of learning it (based on Devarim 32:3). The essay also develops the theme of Torah learning as an expression of song (based on the Rambam’s evocation of the verse in Eichah 2:19 “kumi roni b’laylah” as a reference to talmud Torah). This notion of the dual nature of Torah study, of synthesizing its liturgical components with its fulfillment, highlights the spiritual experience the Rav attached to talmud Torah
Other essays deal with the Rambam’s understanding of the two daily recitations of Keriat Shema as one mitzvah; the unique status of the berachot of Keriat Shema serving as an integral part of the mitzvah of its recitation; the notion that the mitzvah of tefillah has no time boundaries because “wor-
The sefer, not surprisingly, is replete with “Brisker Torah” containing a number of “cheftza-gavra” distinctions (e.g., both recitations of Keriat Shema comprise one mitzvah from the perspective of the gavra, but each unit of recitation has separate significance from the perspective of the cheftza; Tefillat Arvit is a “reshut” from the perspective of the gavra, but has the status of a “tefillat chovah” from the perspective of the cheftza) and many insights from the Rav’s grandfather, Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, zt”l, and the Rav’s father, Rav Moshe Soloveitchik, zt”l
One of the insights quoted from Rav Moshe Soloveitchik describes how the mitzvah of tefillah is both triggered through an obligation of “worship of the heart” and fulfilled through the “worship of the heart.” Similarly, this sefer was undoubtedly inspired by a heartfelt appreciation of the words of Torah that the author was privileged to hear from the Rav, and was elegantly executed in the same spirit of genuine affection. The end product is a volume that presents a wonderful opportunity for students and scholars to experience the sublime magnificence of the Rav’s Torah legacy. g
Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy,Simple & Stylish
By Helen Nash
Overlook Press
New York, 2012
368 pages
The Bais Yaakov Cookbook
The Fund for Jewish Education Skokie, 2011
383 pages
Temptations
Congregation Keter Torah Teaneck, 2011
300 pages
Dash By Rebecca Naumberg and Sori Klein
Torah Academy for Girls
Far Rockaway, 2011
318 pages
Iread cookbooks. Yes, I read them, cover to cover, page by page. I love to read about why the author has written or compiled specific recipes. I love to discover new tricks and techniques. I love to learn about new tastes and cultures. even if my family won’t taste a morsel.
“I read cookbooks” has been a patent answer for as long as I can remember: “Why do you need another cookbook?” (the husband). “What did you do all Shabbat afternoon?” (the mother). “Where did you get this recipe, and do I really have to taste it?” (the seven-year-old).
I read cookbooks before cookbooks were “fashionable”; before there was a plethora of kosher cookbooks to choose from; before the Food Network, Cooking Channel and DIY. Cookbooks have more than recipes. They have stories, histories and methodologies and they offer invaluable insights into cooking styles, cultures, ingredients and flavors.
The recipes in Helen Nash’s latest offering, Helen Nash’s New Kosher Cuisine: Healthy, Simple & Stylish are
Reviewed by Carrie R. Beylus
just what the title promises. Using unique ingredients, some new to the kosher market, Nash presents elegant and hearty fare in a clear and concise format with practical hints and suggestions for both the novice and seasoned home cook.
“Tuna Tartare with Avocado,” “Celery Root and Porcini Soup,” “Sake Steamed Chicken” and “Tuscan Cake,” a beautiful yeast cake topped with crisp pine nuts, are placed side-by-side with more familiar recipes for “Hamentashen” and “Beet Soup.” Nash’s “Flourless Chocolate Nut Torte” would complement any Passover Seder menu. The cookbook is laid out beautifully with each section—Hors d‘Oeuvres, Appetizers, Soups, Salads, Vegetables, Potatoes & Legumes, Pasta, et cetera—further categorized as Dairy, Meat and Pareve. Unfortunately, there are some instances where recipes run over to the next page, making it difficult to manage the book in the kitchen. In future editions, it might be less confusing if recipes were limited to a single page or to two facing pages.
Almost as important, though, are the Helpful Tips, Notes on Ingredients, Notes on Equipment and Notes on Technique pages. The indispensible advice in these pages, along with the fam-
ily-friendly recipes presented with advance prep and freezing possibilities, make this book a uniquely useful “kitchen tool.”
With its Pesach Possibilities (from the year-round collection) listings, Temptations, a new book of “modern kosher recipes for every occasion” by the Sisterhood of Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, New Jersey, sets itself apart from other kosher cookbooks. In addition to its Pesach recipe section, the book’s two-page spread— “Pesach Possibilities”—allows the reader to pinpoint recipes throughout the book that are either kosher-for-Passover or can be ever-so-slightly adjusted to adhere to the holiday’s unique restrictions. The graph-like pages provide the page number, recipe and suggested substitutions when necessary.
With inviting photos and appealing recipes made up of readily available and healthful ingredients, Temptations is chock-full of simple, go-to recipes.
Each page offers a meat, dairy or pareve designation, a foolproof list of instructions, tips for freezing, variations on preparation and suggested wine pairings, when appropriate.
With an emphasis on tempting and tasty foods, these recipes, while familiar, kick it up a notch with choices like
Carrie R. Beylus is a self-proclaimed cookbook junkie who lives in Woodmere, New York. She is also the marketing manager of Jewish Action.
“Tomato Curry Soup,” an elegant braided “Deli Roll,” “Brisket with Orange Wine Sauce,” “Wheatberry Salad with Red and Green Onions” and “Peanut Brittle Ice Cream Delight with Meringue Topping.”
With its sheer size and presence, the new Bais Yaakov Cookbook could easily pass for a decorative coffee table book—a rather unwieldy challenge in most kitchens. But dozens of attractive photographs accompanying hundreds of original recipes, a moving and inspiring history of the Bais Yaakov movement and the drive of its founder Sara Schenirer make up for this “little” inconvenience.
Unique to this book is its extensive and comprehensive Halachic Guidelines. Covering topics from preparation of food on Shabbat to bishul akum to berachot on “problematic” foods, this book is a one-stop guide for the kosher cook.
The book is lovingly dedicated to Rebbetzin Batsheva Esther Kanievsky, a”h, whose sudden passing right before its publication saddened the Jewish world. There is a beautiful, handwritten berachah to bnot Yisrael by the rebbetzin that accompanies her famous challah recipe published in the book.
Each recipe, while seemingly simple, is presented with options for enhancing its flavors, staging and overall appeal. The “Crispy Potato Roast” with vertically aligned, paperthin cuts of potato is not only delicious but so much simpler to prepare than the daring architectural feat it appears to be. The “Hearty Vegetable Soup” offers a fabulous tip for preparing butternut squash bowls for service. Corned beef, salmon and chicken cutlets are presented with multiple glazes and marinades to please any palate.
While most every kosher cookbook out there highlights the word kosher in its title, Dash, published by Far Rockaway’s Torah Academy for Girls, is a creative standout. Although in cooking, “dash” refers to a “very small amount,” there is nothing small about this book.
Its bold graphics and layout is commanding, if a little hard to read on certain pages where purple, green and red type conflict with the page’s black background, but its emphasis on presentation is unrivaled. “Sweet Potato Crumble in Orange Cups,” a molded “Rainbow Rice Dome” and “Lasagna Wonton Stacks with Tomato Basil Sauce” are just a sampling of the creative varieties included.
While I miss the dairy, meat and pareve designations, this dynamically designed project offers a welcome emphasis on fruits and vegetables in all categories, like the “Cheese and Fig Tartlets with Walnut Streusel and Pomegranate Syrup” and the earthy combinations of its “Smoky Apple Chestnut Bread Pudding.”
Although most kosher cooks—male or female, young or old—are too busy or have other recreational interests and cannot just sit around reading cookbooks, I recommend you dust one or two off your shelves, or better yet, invest in one of those described above. Read it, use it, learn from it. You won’t find any intrigue or deep plot lines like in a good novel, but I promise it’ll be more entertaining than a college textbook—and you might even solve a kitchen mystery or two along the way.
First Impressions of the Koren Talmud
Koren Talmud Bavli
By Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz
Koren Publishers
Jerusalem, 2012
Reviewed by Harvey Belovski
Along-standing Daf Yomi devotee, I have become familiar with certain learning tools. These include pocket Agudah publications, the ArtScroll Schottenstein Talmud, the older Soncino translation, my favorite, Metivta, a colossal Hebrew-language scholarly work and, more recently, the ArtScroll Talmud App. At first glance, the market appears saturated, but the Koren Talmud Bavli, which recently won the National Jewish Book Award in the Modern Jewish Thought and Experience category, offers a perspective and learning experience genuinely different from existing resources.
Koren Publishers is well known for its imaginative approach, textual precision and stylistic excellence. Its Tanach and liturgical offerings, which include the recent Sacks Siddur and machzorim, have been hailed as paragons of design and presentation. Koren’s unmistakable Hebrew typefaces are easy to read, and powerfully amalgamate the gravitas of ancient texts with modern aesthetic sensitivities. Unparalleled in the world of Jewish publishing, these trademark accomplishments have now been harnessed to the outstanding genius of Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz, the world’s best-known teacher and translator of the Talmud,
Rabbi Dr. Harvey Belovski is a graduate of Oxford University, the Gateshead Yeshivah and the University of London. He is the rabbi of the Golders Green Synagogue in London, a teaching and research fellow at the London School of Jewish Studies, the rabbinic mentor of Chaplaincy, the principal of Rimon Jewish Primary School, the rosh of The Midrasha for women, the rav of Kisharon and the rabbinical advisor of PaL (UK Partners in Torah).
to produce an extraordinary new edition of the Babylonian Talmud. Rabbi Steinsaltz is famous for having published the entire Talmud reformatted with Modern Hebrew translation and elucidations, known for their scholarship and accessibility. This new edition is based on that earlier work. A formidable editorial and translation team is headed by Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, executive vice president, emeritus of the Orthodox Union, and complemented by luminaries such as Rabbi Dr. Shalom Berger and my contemporary from Oxford, Rabbi Jason Rappoport, formerly of Yale University, to name but two.
The volumes, of which two—Berakhot and Shabbat, vol. 1—of a projected forty-one, had been released at the time of this writing, are beautifully presented. (There are actually several editions: a $50 standard model with color photographs and a smaller, $40 monochrome Daf Yomi version, as well as various online PDF options and a proposed app; the publisher furnished me with the two available volumes in the color edition). The boldest formatting decision is obvious immediately, as the tzurat hadaf—regular Vilna format of the Talmudic text—is present, but has been completely separated from the translation and annotations, the section which most readers will use. Opening a volume from the “Hebrew” side, one encounters the standard He-
brew/Aramaic folios (although, unlike in most editions, including Soncino and ArtScroll, the text includes diacritics and punctuation); from the “English” side, the new translation and commentary appear, following approbations and prefaces. There are also informative general introductions, as well as prefatory remarks and summaries for each chapter. Pages are divided vertically: two thirds are devoted to the Talmudic text, the remaining third (occasionally spilling into the bottom margin) to background, general notes, halachic observations, biographical material, illustrations and references to the standard pagination. The print is comfortably readable—well spaced with broad margins to ensure the characteristic Koren minimalist visual.
The Talmudic text itself is divided into easily digestible segments, with an interpolated translation facing its corresponding Hebrew/Aramaic original. The notes, background and halachic material are useful and interesting without being too cumbersome; they are clearly selected to enhance rather than overshadow a straightforward reading of the text. The illustrations—some photographic, others artistic depictions—are a desirable addition to the page and succeed in illuminating unfamiliar terms in the text as well as adding richness and variety. The editors’ decision to restore sections of the text bowdlerized or deleted by Christian censors (and preserved in the Vilna edition, as well as in Soncino and ArtScroll) is welcome. In tractates such as Avodah Zarah and Sanhedrin, this will be of considerable value. Altogether, the result is impressive—a triumph of design that is at once engrossing and attractive, and obviously intended to claim a place for the classical text and its ideas in a modern setting.
Studying from the Koren Talmud
When the Church of England proposed the introduction of a new prayer book, the Queen allegedly remarked that the only way to assess it was to “pray through it.” Inspired by this, I
realized that I could not properly evaluate the Koren Talmud without actually “learning through it” for a period. So, in preparation for this review, I studied the Shabbat volume for two weeks of the Daf Yomi cycle and also prepared three of my weekly Gemara shiurim from it. My experience was mostly positive.
Koren’s decision to separate the classic pagination of the text from the translation and commentary—i.e., not to print their translation facing Vilna folios à la Soncino and ArtScroll—is understandable. It avoids numerous repeated pages (thousands over an entire set of Talmud, equating to many additional volumes—ArtScroll is seventythree!) and allows serious scholars to study the original text undistracted, encouraging them to flip to the translation only when really necessary rather than constantly glancing across at it. Yet, I struggled with this arrangement. I missed knowing where the text I am studying appears on the standard page, something that I find indispensable for cross-referencing, discussion and, most importantly, locating a section in a regular edition. I appreciate that Koren is intended for those without extensive grounding in Talmud study, yet its publication schedule suggests that it is pitching to the Daf Yomi market and even the less-experienced student will benefit from joining the worldwide
JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
Talmudic discourse in shiurim, shuls and online.
Despite Koren’s ample signposts to allow comparison with the original Talmudic text at the other end of the book, I am also unsure about the decision not to adopt the “facing pages” layout and worry that it may hamper rather than facilitate full engagement with the larger world of Talmud study. Might it be possible to include on each translated page a thumbnail of the corresponding standard daf, with the relevant section highlighted to create a firmer link between the two? Actually, with the Vilna pages arranged like this, I cannot envisage anyone actually using them.
Another editorial decision was to exclude all Hebrew/Aramaic from the translated sections. This allows for a comfortable, mono-directional reading experience, limits the size of the volumes and enhances the beauty of the page. Yet, as my son Dovid Chaim pointed out, it also makes it difficult to directly relate English phrases to their specific Talmudic originals, perhaps frustrating a key objective “for the beginner of any age who seeks to obtain the necessary skills to become an adept Talmudist” (Rabbi Weinreb’s introduction, p. xiii). A further small point: notes that contain such unreferenced phrases as “Rashi elsewhere” (e.g., marginal note to Shabbat vol. 1, p. 139)
would be enhanced by noting where in Rashi’s commentary; in this case, ArtScroll does just that. This seems to be an editorial decision, rather than an oversight, as all halachic marginalia are fully referenced.
On the subject of formatting, I was uncomfortable with Koren’s subdivision of sugyot (conceptual units). They are aesthetically pleasing and manageable for the uninitiated, yet any division of a sugya into smaller sections amounts to a specific reading of the text, something that should be acknowledged. And I was disappointed to see that no distinction is offered in the translation between actual sugya divisions (those marked on the Vilna page and of ancient vintage) and those added by Koren’s editors for ease of comprehension. This gives an uneven and sometimes misleading sense of the flow of the original text; conceivably, this policy might be reconsidered for future volumes.
The translation is mostly accurate, sophisticated and a pleasure to read, although I was perplexed by the rendering of “baya” and its cognates as “dilemma,” which for me, at least, suggests a moral conundrum, yet none is being considered; “inquiry” would have been a better translation. Technical terms are beautifully rendered, often with expert etymological guidance and, where appropriate, illustrations or diagrams. However, while archaeology, flora and fauna are well represented, unfamiliar processes would benefit from deeper coverage. For example, where the Mishnah lists the thirty-nine melachot (Shabbat vol. 1, p. 355-6), it would have been helpful to include diagrams or photographs of agricultural and weaving techniques, many of which are foreign to the modern reader.
Koren's new Talmud is comfortably readable, well spaced with broad margins to ensure the characteristic Koren minimalist visual.
The OU is a non-profit, community-based organization, so when you buy an OUcertified product, you’re also supporting the ten major OU agencies—including Community Services and the Institute for Public Affairs— that enhance Jewish life.
As an example of accessible translation and intertextuality, I was impressed with Koren’s rendering of the convoluted inductive structure “hazar ha-din lo r’iy zeh , ” which I have always struggled to translate successfully:
And the derivation has reverted (to its starting point). The aspect of this (case) is not like the aspect of that (case) and the aspect of that (case) is not like this (case, as each case has its own unique stringencies. However,) their common denominator is that . . . (Berakhot, p. 239 and Shabbat vol. 1, p. 130).
Koren’s translation, which is complemented (curiously, only in Berakhot) by an excellent background note, is more intelligible and literate than ArtScroll’s and beautifully captures the intention of a complex text without being too verbose.
However, there is a degree of unevenness and wordiness in the interpolation. For example:
The fundamental dispute in this mishnah is with regard to the determination whether or not indirect acts of kindling and extinguishing fall within the parameters of the prohibition on Shabbat (Introduction to Mishnah, Shabbat vol. 1, p. 136).
Perhaps this could be edited to something like:
In this mishnah, the rabbis dispute whether indirect kindling and extinguishing are forbidden on Shabbat.
Yet there are few such infidelities and overall, on my key indicators —precision, comprehensibility and linguistic elegance—Koren’s translation and interpolation are the best around.
Summary
The Koren Talmud Bavli is an important and innovative new resource for English-speaking students—one that is without compare in terms of its graphic design, contemporary feel and readability. It succeeds in reincarnating the ancient repository of Jewish wisdom—our beloved Talmud—in a new, accessible format, surely casting its net of influence wider than ever before. While I found the experience of learning from the volumes somewhat frustrating, my quibbles are those of someone likely outside the work’s target group. And aside from my consider-
I JEWISH ACTION Spring 5773/2013
able discomfort with the (presumably irreversible) editorial decision to divide the standard Vilna pages from the main work, my observations are subjective and relatively minor. Notwithstanding these gripes, I have learned a lot from its pages and I’m even considering purchasing additional volumes to complement my existing resources. Indeed, it is in finding new audiences for old wisdom where Rabbi Steinsaltz excels and where this ambitious project will work its magic. It has become fashionable to study Talmud in circles where, in the past, its association with elitist, male-only environments, as well as its dense, inaccessible style, made it off-limits. While obviously coming from completely different perspectives, today, many women, latecomers to Orthodoxy, those of nonOrthodox affiliation and non-observant Jews, are excited by and devoted to regular Talmud study. Some are able to access traditional resources, but most are not. For them, as well as for many men who left the yeshivah system uninspired by traditional learning, the Koren Talmud is a marvelous portal into the heretofore closed and mysterious, yet strangely alluring, world of real Jewish study.
The Starbucks Talmud
The ArtScroll Digital Library
Schottenstein Talmud App, Version 1.4
ArtScroll Mesorah Publications
Reviewed by Gil Student
We live in an age of customization, when consumers demand products tailored to their specific desires. You don’t simply order a cup of coffee; you mix and match different flavors and options, detailing exactly how you want it to taste. Online stores present a virtually unlimited display of brands and models, well beyond what you would find stocked in a store. This ethos of customization has spread be-
Rabbi Gil Student writes frequently on Jewish issues and blogs at TorahMusings.com. He is a member of the Jewish Action editorial board.
yond consumer products, affecting our lives.
Print media is disintegrating as magazines and newspapers give way to web reading, where we use various tools to find articles that meet our personal interests. Is there a future for books, which are mass produced and cannot be customized? As I previously discussed in this magazine,1 I believe books are here to stay. However, whoever discovers how to personalize the reading experience will certainly pave the way for the next generation of content providers.
I would not have thought that Talmud study could be personalized. I do not doubt that the published look of the Talmud has changed over the years, but the changes have been incremental. I remember when the Talman Shas introduced the bold font for introductory words in Rashi’s Talmud commentary. That minor change was considered revolutionary, an educational flash of genius that took the yeshivah study halls by storm. We are now witnessing a more significant change, a next-generation Talmud which will radically redefine the text and its relationship to students.
The ArtScroll Talmud App is not just an ancient text adapted to the iPad format. That is not a particularly diffi-
ArtScroll’s new app is aesthetically pleasing and its features provide meaningful options so users can customize the learning experience.
cult task which has already been accomplished by other apps, such as On YourWay and iTalmud. Nor is it merely an addition of the popular ArtScroll translation and commentary to the iPad Talmud text. It is much more. The ArtScroll Talmud App is a fully customizable text that allows readers to “order” the Talmud according to their
We
are now witnessing a more significant change, a next-generation Talmud which will radically redefine the text and its relationship to students.
learning tastes. It offers users the ability to define their own experience, which incidentally remedies some of the pedagogical issues some found with the original ArtScroll Schottenstein Talmud
The primary purpose of the app is to provide the English translation of the Talmud alongside the original Aramaic text. The app allows you to do this in multiple ways. You can choose to view either only the English or Aramaic, or both languages arranged side by side. With the Aramaic, you can choose the standard Vilna edition with all the expected marginal commentaries in place, or you can run a flowing vowelized and punctuated text with commentaries at the bottom. In the flowing text option, the app allows you to add breaking points between topics and descriptors labeling questions, answers and statements. The flowing Aramaic text is your own private tutor. Additionally, you can choose what appears in the pop-up box when you tap on an Aramaic phrase. Options include the English translation, Rashi, Tosafot, Torah Or (which provides the full text of any verse cited in the Gemara text) and other marginal commentaries, and the extensive ArtScroll footnotes. Personally, I prefer the Vilna text with the English translation in the pop-up box. In this way, I can approach the text as I would in my printed Talmud. If I find a word or phrase challenging, I tap it and find the text’s translation and expansion.
Some have criticized the ArtScroll Schottenstein Talmud (English edition) for serving as a crutch. Students rely so much on the English that they either ignore the Aramaic or fail to learn individual words. By hiding the translation behind a tap, you can create a new balance between Aramaic and English favoring the original more than a printed side-by-side text. You are almost forced to read the original before tapping and seeing the translation.
Another feature I appreciate solves an age-old dilemma. Studying a com-
mentary, such as Rashi, often leads to losing your place in the text. Or when you refer back to the text, you lose your place in Rashi. The solution, pointing with both hands to the two places, can become cumbersome. While the nowstandard bold-type introductory Rashi words was a big step forward in helping Talmud learners keep their place, the ArtScroll Talmud App shifts the paradigm. When you tap on a Rashi, Tosafot or any marginal note, both the commentary and the associated Talmudic phrase are highlighted in yellow. Alternately, you can set the preferences
so that Rashi or any other commentary on the page appears in a pop-up box when you tap on the text. You will never lose your place again!
The ArtScroll Talmud App is aesthetically pleasing and its pages load fairly quickly. Its rich features provide meaningful options so users can customize the learning experience according to their needs. This sets the gold standard of Jewish apps, utilizing the unique iPad features to alter the Talmud experience without tinkering with the actual text. It is an entirely traditional learning experience more fully enabled by the remarkable power of the iPad. g
Note
1. “The Future of the Sefer” (spring 2011).
Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation
5. No. of Issues Published Annually: Five. 6. Annual Subscription Price: $16.00. 7. Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication: Orthodox Union, 11 Broadway, NY, NY, 10004. 8. Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher: Same. 9. Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor and Managing Editor: Publisher: Orthodox Union, 11 Broadway, NY, NY, 10004. Editor: Nechama Carmel, 11 Broadway, NY, NY, 10004. Managing Editor: Mayer Fertig, 11 Broadway, NY, NY, 10004. 10. Owner: Orthodox Union, 11 Broadway, NY, NY, 10004. 11. Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of Bonds: None. 12. Tax Status (For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at nonprofit rates): The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income purposes has not changed during the preceding 12 months. 13. Publication Title: Jewish Action. 14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Spring 2013.
15. Extent and nature of circulation: Average No.Copies Each Issue No.Copies of Single Issue During Preceding 12 Months Published Nearest to Filing Date
a. Total No. Copies (Net Press Run)
b. Paid and/or Requested Circulation
(1) Paid/Requested Outside-Country
Mail Subscriptions Stated on Form 3541
(2) Paid In-Country Subscriptions
Stated on Form 3541
(3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers,
Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Non-USPS Paid Distribution
(4) Other Classes Paid Through the USPS
c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation
[Sum of 15b.(1),(2),(3), and (4)]
d. Free Distribution by Mail
(1) Outside Country as Stated on Form 3541
(2) In-Country as Stated on Form 3541
(3) Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS
(4) Free Distribution Outside the Mail
e. Total Free Distribution
[Sum of 15d (1), (2), (3) and (4)
f. Total Distribution [Sum of 15c.And 15e.)
g. Copies Not Distributed
h. Total [Sum of 15f. And g.]
i. Percent Paid [15c. divided by 15f. times 100] 99
16. Publication of Statement of Ownership required. Will be printed in the Spring ‘13 issue of this publication. 17. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager, or Owner: Anthony Lugo, Production Manager. Date: October 1, 2012.
Spring 5773/2013 JEWISH ACTION I 87
LastingImpressions
It is 1:15 A M.on Seder night. My fatigue is settling in, along with the brisket. It’s a good, satisfying fatigue, born of the hard work I have done—with the help of my children—to clean, shop, cook and make a Seder for family and friends. After twenty-two years of making Sedarim, I admit to occasional twinges of Pesach resort envy, often triggered when fielding calls from friends wishing me an early “good yom tov” because their families are about to take off for their Pesach program in Scotland, Italy or Israel, while I am going mano-a-mano with the business side of a scrubby sponge in the kitchen.
By Judy Gruen
Miracle My Pesach
Suddenly, I am resentful and mad: Does Hashem really want me to have to throw out all this brisket, at $8.99 a pound? Where am I supposed to find a yom tovgoy at nearly 1:30 A.M.? Why does this religion have to have so many rules? What am I supposed to feed my guests for second Seder if I can’t store my food in the fridge? Tuna fish?
tuna for second Seder, a car slowly pulls up and parks directly across the street from my house. Like a shot, my husband and eldest son fly out the door, and I wonder if the sight of grown men wearing long white robes hurtling toward him might not just scare the heck out of the driver. I watch from the dining room, holding my breath, as my crew talks with the man. To my utter amazement, I watch the driver get out of his car and enter my house.
My yom tovgoy has arrived.
My husband and our kids insist that there’s no place better to have the Sedarim than at home, which is a satisfying feeling for me, and I focus on making Pesach with simchah. And yet, every year, I start to get shpilkes around 1 A M.Despite the joyous singing, I am distracted by the thought that the brisket needs to be tucked into the fridge and the other food put away. I head to the kitchen, “Avadim Hayinu” echoing in my head. I am happy, infused with a spiritual glow.
More than ever before this year, I feel connected to the experience of Yitziyat Mitzrayim. More than ever this year, I feel an irreducible, transcendent connection to my Jewish identity, to Hashem and through my children, to the Jewish future.
That feeling lasts about thirty seconds. No sooner do I fling open the refrigerator door than I recoil in horror—the refrigerator light goes on. I forgot to set the holiday mode before yom tov! I let the door fall shut, and faster than you could shout “Dayeinu!” all that spiritual “aliyah” of the Seder goes pfffft! Gone, in an instant!
Judy Gruen writes the Mirth and Meaning blog at www.judygruen.com. Her latest book is Till We Eat Again (Wisconsin, 2003).
I announce the bitter news at the table, and complain about the impossibility of finding any redemption for this situation. “Don’t worry, Ma! It’s all going to be fine,” my eldest son says. I glower at him. How dare he display such emunah at a time like this! His blithe disregard for my situation annoys me. We open our dining room shutters, looking for the implausible appearance of a yom tovgoy, while the rest of the family has the audacity to continue singing. I sit there feeling like a ba’alas teshuvah flame-out.
I am ashamed of myself. What is my suffering compared to that of our ancestors, enslaved for hundreds of years? They had reason to complain! Yet the old “gam zu l’tovah” philosophy refuses to kick in. I wonder what message Hashem is sending me. All I had wanted was to make Pesach with simchah!
At 1:35, my husband and one of our sons go outside to scan the street. All we see are Jews, Jews everywhere; the land is filled with them! Usually, it’s a comforting feeling to find a landsman in a time of trouble, but not in this case. We get excited for one moment seeing a couple heading toward a car, but unfortunately, they are Jews, too.
At 1:45, as I feel myself falling to the forty-ninth level of spiritual darkness, fighting tears of frustration and wondering how to elegantly serve canned
The sight of my “savior,” pardon the expression, renders me nearly speechless. But not quite. I blabber excessive “thank yous” and apologize for the intrusion. “I realize you must think we’re very strange,” I offer. The young man holds up one hand to stop me—not that I blame him—explaining that he is a waiter for Shiloh’s, a kosher restaurant a few blocks away, and has just finished working at a Seder it hosted. “I know all about it,” he explains cheerfully.
In the kitchen, I show him how to set the holiday mode. And with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, the waiter from Shiloh’s sets the holiday mode, saving not only my brisket, but my sanity as well. I offer him some brisket as a thank you, but he declines. He comes and goes within three minutes, his appearance inexplicable. Shiloh’s is only three blocks away, yet for some reason, he pulls up directly across from our house to make a phone call.
That night, I gained a spiritual high, lost it in a moment, and then regained it in a much more profound way. As miracles go, I know that sending a yom tovgoy is no great shakes compared to, say, splitting a sea or smiting the firstborns. But on that Seder night, it was the biggest miracle I could have asked for—a full redemption, and a reminder that Hashem knows what we need and sends it when we need it.
