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Opinions
from Stump the Rabbi
Reflections two years later
By Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers AS LONG AS WE LIVE we will never forget the lives of those we lost in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting at the Tree of Life * Or L'Simcha building on Oct. 27, 2018. We will never forget who we were with and what we were doing, how we responded and what we have done to honor these beloved martyrs of our community.
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As we commemorate one of the most significant events of our lives, we still grieve, we still remember, we still survive in a time that continues to challenge us in ways we never imagined. Despite these challenges, we will continue to reach out to teach each other about hope, love and community.
Are we better as a nation two years later? While I cannot lessen the impact of more than 200,000 COVID-related deaths in the United States alone, I have learned that during times of trauma, people’s authenticity inevitably rises to the surface. If you are innately a good person, you will find ways to utilize your goodness to help better the lives of others.
In the days and weeks following the Oct. 27 attack that killed 11 worshippers from three congregations, strangers from across the globe offered condolences, prayers, encouragement and even lengthy, handwritten letters pouring out their tears. As we approach the second year commemoration, good people once again reach out, offering continued support, reminding us that they have not forgotten.
I still believe that deep down the vast majority of humanity is composed of good people. They reject all forms of “H” (that word is eliminated from my vocabulary), bigotry, racism, and the all too frequent violent acts that often accompany these words. Perhaps during periods of great stress, who we really are is seen in full view, stripped of all pretense and protective gear. Studies have shown that during great stressors throughout history, antiSemitism rises.
When coupled with so much else occurring in America at this time, some might suggest that it’s no surprise that the proverbial pot is boiling over. Social unrest. Pandemic. Political upheaval. Economic stress. Serious divisiveness. All at once we find ourselves coping with these entrenched daily travails on top of the indelible mark that Oct. 27 left on each of us. Despite it all, we remain resilient and resolute in moving forward with our lives, with plans to rebuild our synagogue as well as our dreams.
There are plenty of helpers out there and we should look to them, in a reference to the famous advice Mister Rogers’ mother gave him as a child when things were upsetting. We, too, must be
Please see Reflections, page 26
What’s really not accurate
As a patriotic, freedom-loving American Jew, I was outraged and deeply offended by Sonny Taragin’s (“Not accurate,” Oct. 2) characterization of the Charlottesville Unite the Right “Jews Will Not Replace Us” rally as just being about the removal or retention of “statues of controversial American heroes of the past.”
“Heroes”? Chob mir a break. These individuals, as Clifford Fishman noted (same issue, “After the Confederate statues, are Washington and Jefferson next?”), were traitors who took up arms against their country in the interests of preserving slavery.
Of course, President Trump would claim that there were “good people on both sides.” What do you expect from an individual who cheats when it comes to tzedakah?
This consideration alone should be dispositive as to why no Jew with a conscience could support his reelection.
As to President Trump’s so-called pro-Israel bent: Keep in mind, as has been publicly acknowledged (Aug. 18, Times of Israel), the relocation of the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem was a ploy intended to appeal to his evangelical Christian base, rather than, say, being done out of any love for Jewish people.
Brad Shaw Clarksville
Is the Talmud next?
There is a Jewish angle to Clifford Fishman’s cogent analysis of “After the Confederate Statues, are Washington and Jefferson next?” (Oct 2). 1. Jews fared better in the Confederacy than they did in the Union. Judah B. Benjamin rose to become a very high-ranking official in Jefferson Davis' cabinet, and it was Union General Ulysses Grant who issued the infamous Order No. 11. 2. There were rabbis in the Talmud who were slave owners, and the Tanach accepts slavery as a valid social institution (although, to be sure, “slavery” in the Tanach is not a monolithic enterprise, and the slavery of the Bible is more comparable to indentured servitude than the chattel slavery of the antebellum American South). As a matter of moral consistency: If slave-holding is an automatic disqualifier in the Black Lives Matter era, what should be done about the Talmud? Tear out the pages where the rabbinic slavers are featured? Declare null and void the halachic rulings in which they participated? Of course not. Like Presidents Washington and Jefferson, in Fishman’s words, “we should celebrate their accomplishments” while acknowledging “their sins and their flaws, their mistakes and weaknesses and moral blindness.”
Roy Amadeus Annapolis
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An easy choice for Jewish voters
By Barbara Goldberg Goldman
THE PAST FOUR YEARS,
especially the past eight months, have been devastating. COVID’s impact is too much for too many to bear. The prospect of four more years of a Trump administration that has torn away the fabric of our society, and divided Americans more than any administration since the Civil War, only compounds our anxiety. Access to quality healthcare, reproductive freedom, combating climate change, enacting gun safety legislation, fair housing and U.S.-Israel relations should be bipartisan matters. The Trump administration has done everything in its power to use them to divide us.
Let’s take Israel. Ensuring a strong U.S.-Israel relationship, for decades, has been a cardinal principle of pro-Israel advocacy. Partisanship is not unusual when ideological considerations are in play. In fact, party affiliation is a good indicator of where a candidate will stand on any given issue — but not Israel.
Strong support for Israel on both sides of the aisle should be celebrated. Israel should be a uniting force within our community. To use Israel as fodder for partisan fighting simply is unacceptable.
The stark reality is that Republicans looking for votes and realizing the significance of Jewish voters in pivotal communities across America are attempting to manipulate our emotions on Israel. Because so many Republican positions are antithetical to core Jewish values, they distort the one area of bipartisan consensus in order to score political points. In so doing, they weaken the unity we should be working to strengthen.
Joe Biden exemplifies our Jewish core values, including bipartisan support for Israel. His five decades of support for Israel evidence the longest and strongest record on Israel of any presidential candidate in history. Joe Biden fought for Israel’s qualitative military edge (QME) in the 1980s when he opposed the sale of AWACs to Saudi Arabia. He has backed foreign aid to Israel during his entire career. He strongly advocated for missile defense systems such as Iron Dome as vice president (after Iron Dome received a frosty reception from the previous administration). In fact, he helped broker the recordsetting $38 billion 10-year aid package to Israel, the largest aid package in U.S. history. And, Joe Biden has unequivocally opposed any conditioning of aid to Israel. To suggest that he is anything other than an unwavering friend of Israel is untruthful, manipulative and puts rank partisanship before the safety and security of Israel.
As vice chair and a co-founder of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), I am proud of the fine work we have done to advocate for our core Jewish values while modeling bipartisanship when it comes to Israel. In horror and disbelief, we watched President Trump call neo-Nazis and white supremacists “very fine people,” as they marched in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us.” It was then that we decided to move up JDCA’s original launch date. Not coincidentally, Joe Biden made his decision to run for president for the same reason based on the same values.
JDCA recently ran a successful ad linking the emboldening of white nationalism under Donald Trump and the rise of fascism and hatred in 1930s Germany. The fact that some Republicans closed their eyes to the truth does not lessen the ad’s validity. Instead of discussing it on the merits, some Republicans choose to use the memories of those who perished in the Shoah as partisan shields, pretending that the ad accused the Trump administration of genocide when it does nothing of the kind. What does “Never Forget” mean if we cannot learn from the lessons of history?
Instead of condemning the anti-Semitic rhetoric and dog whistles from their Republican leader, these same Republicans focus on two or three of the least powerful Democrats in the House, a tiny fraction of the 435 members of Congress and 236 Democrats. Anti-Semitism must be condemned in all forms no matter the source. We should not permit ourselves to be fooled by attempts to create false equivalencies. It is absurd to equate the words of a couple of first-term members of Congress with the words of the president of the United States.
Anti-Semitism might exist on both sides of the aisle, but while the Democratic Party marginalizes it, the Republican Party ignores it emanating from the top. Trump’s silence speaks louder than his words. His failure to condemn white supremacy when asked to do so at the presidential debate, and his failure to condemn QAnon, a dangerous group of antiSemitic conspiracists, at the recent town hall, tells much about his danger not only to the Jewish community, but to all decent people in America.
Golda Meir was the first of nine Israeli Prime Ministers with whom Joe Biden has met. In her infinite wisdom, she once said, “If only political leaders would allow themselves to feel, as well as to think, the world might be a happier place.” Joe Biden is precisely the leader who we need now more than ever.
Barbara Goldberg Goldman is vice chair and a co-founder of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
American Jewry’s faithful hour
By Caroline Glick | JNS
ALMOST ALL THE POLLS
say that U.S. President Donald Trump is heading toward defeat next month at the hands of his Democrat challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden. But Robert Cahaly, who heads the Trafalgar Group polling firm, disagrees. Cahaly was the only major pollster that accurately called the 2016 presidential race. In an interview with The Political Trade podcast, Cahaly said his data show Trump headed for another upset victory on Nov. 3.
Cahaly said that today, as in 2016, the disparity between his numbers and the marquis polling firms’ numbers owes to the latter’s systematic neglect of what he calls the “Shy Trump Voter Effect.”
From the time Hillary Clinton referred to Trump’s supporters as “deplorables” through today as Democrats demonize them as racists and fascists, Cahaly explains that a significant and growing segment of Trump voters will not admit their support for him. Fearing social and professional repercussions, the Shy Trump Voter lies to pollsters and anyone else who asks him what he thinks of Trump.
If Trump wins an historic level of support among American Jews, it will be a testament to the wisdom of an unprecedented percentage of American Jews. For American Jewry this year’s presidential election is without question the most critical one ever.
Over the past four years, anti-Semitism has become an undeniable and central characteristic of the Democratic Party to which the vast majority of American Jews have pledged their loyalty for the better part of the past hundred years, while anti-Semitism in the Republican Party has dropped to historic lows.
Democratic anti-Semitism has seemingly appeared out of the blue but in truth, the party has been on a largely one-lane road to radicalization for the past 50 years. It’s just that the path turned into a highway over the past four years with the rise of open anti-Semites like Rashida Tlaib, Linda Sarsour, Andre Carson, Keith Ellison and Ilhan Omar to commanding positions in the party.
Anti-Semitism runs through Democratic politics, policies and behavior across a spectrum of issues. In foreign policy, hating Israel has become the most passionate position of the progressive grassroots.
Biden announced early on that if elected, he will restore the U.S.’s commitment to the Iran nuclear deal he forged with Barack Obama. That means that a Biden administration will cancel the economic sanctions on Iran, ensuring the survival of the regime. It means a Biden administration will enable the cessation of the U.N. arms embargo enabling Iran to purchase whatever advanced weapons systems it wants. It also means a regime pledged to annihilate the largest Jewish community in the world — Israel — will have an open path to a nuclear arsenal.
Biden has agreed to restore the Palestinians to center stage. This isn’t a propeace position. After all, the Abraham Accords are the result of Trump marginalizing the Palestinians. The purpose of a Palestinian-centric policy is to delegitimize Israel, justify a U.S. foreign policy hostile to Israel and a domestic policy hostile to Israel’s supporters in America.
Then there is anti-Semitism itself. The good news is that like Trump, Biden can be expected to take on white supremacists. The bad news is that in stark contrast to Trump, Biden can be expected to turn a blind eye to the growing anti-Semitism in his own political camp.
Anti-Semitism of course isn’t limited to anti-Zionism. There is also traditional anti-Semitism that involves scapegoating and assaulting Jews simply for being Jews. There’s a lot of that going on in Democratic circles these days.
On Oct. 5, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a press conference where he directly threatened the state’s Orthodox Jewish community. In the middle of the Sukkot festival, Cuomo said, “I have to say to the Orthodox community … ‘If you’re not willing to live with these rules [of limiting participation in prayers due to the pandemic], then I’m going to close the synagogues.”
It would be one thing to single out Orthodox Jews if they were the only ones rejecting the limitations on religious gatherings. But they aren’t. Not even close.
As Daniel Greenfield reported at Frontpage online magazine, the day before Cuomo threatened the Orthodox community, thousands of Shi’ite Muslim men gathered without masks and with no social distancing in Queens to hold an Arba’een procession. Cuomo didn’t mention them. He also didn’t mention them in August when they held a Muharram procession in Manhattan, with no masks and no social distancing, even though the next day, Cuomo threatened to ban Jewish weddings.
To justify his singling out of Orthodox Jews, Cuomo held up a photograph of a massive Chasidic funeral. Cuomo failed to note the photo was
Please see Trump, page 26
President
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represent America ably and credibly in the international community.
As a senator, Biden led from the center, across party lines, and was universally liked and respected. As vice president to the first African American
Barrett
Continued from page 22 second day, Barrett spent hours testifying — citing cases, and quoting from them — without using notes. Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas mentioned a small notepad Barrett had in front of
Reflections
Continued from page 23 helpers because they need our support to swing the perceived pendulum in the opposite direction.
It can seem overwhelming to simultaneously take down the bad and build up the good, but the old adage that “if you
Trump
Continued from page 25 of a funeral that took place in 2006.
According to media reports, Cuomo is the frontrunner to serve as attorney general in a Biden administration.
With a record like the one Cuomo has racked up in New York, and with the Democrat House majority incapable of condemning anti-Semitism when it emanates from its own members, it strains credulity to believe a Biden president, he demonstrated an ability to lead effectively in an increasingly multicultural America. And as president, we believe he will bring integrity, civility and compassion to the White House. He will listen to scientists and other experts when it comes to fighting the coronavirus and climate change. He will use taxation her, and said: “You know, most of us have multiple notebooks and notes and books and things like that in front of us. Can you hold up what you’ve been referring to in answering our questions?” In response, Barrett smiled and lifted up and displayed a blank notepad. “That’s impressive,” sit on the fence and watch you will get splinters” applies. We need to disassemble the fences that separate us and use the wood to instead build bridges. We are all more alike than we recognize, and too frequently we allow the differences to define us. We must use our commonalities to unite us in the goal of administration will protect the civil rights of Jews. This is especially true in the growing number of cases where the anti-Semites are either progressives or members of privileged communities within the progressive camp, and the victims are either Zionist Jews or Orthodox Jews.
A Jerusalem Post poll this week claimed that 70% of American Jews intend to vote for Biden. Twenty-five percent intend to vote for Trump. If the numbers are true, Trump is already enjoying a larger and government spending to address serious domestic policy issues. And we hope that he will use his bully pulpit in today’s times of uncertainty as a platform to unite our fractured country and reform and reconstruct our civic institutions.
Joe Biden is a mensch. He is someone we know Cornyn said. And it was.
Barrett is not a product of Ivy League schools or the Eastern establishment. She is devoutly religious. She favors an originalist, textualist approach to statutory and constitutional interpretation. All of that makes liberals uncomfortable. But Barrett making this experiment of a mixing pot called the United States successful.
The silent majority of good, decent people have been silent for too long. When will the day come that they rise up, and state with moral clarity, that words of “H,” bigotry, racism and the violence that they inevitably lead to percentage of the Jewish vote than any Republican candidate since Ronald Reagan. If Cahaly’s models are as accurate in 2020 as they were in 2016, it is likely that Shy Trump Voters in the Jewish community will give Trump more Jewish votes than any Republican has received in history. and respect. Biden has demonstrated the ability to learn from mistakes and evolve with changing times, even at the age of 77. And he is fortunate to have an intelligent, dynamic running mate in Sen. Kamala Harris.
The choice is simple. We endorse Democrat Joe Biden
for president.
Caroline Glick is an award-winning columnist and author of “The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East.” This article first appeared in Israel Hayom. will almost certainly be confirmed as the next justice on the Supreme Court. She has the necessary qualifications, and displayed the proper temperament for the job. We wish her well, and hope that she will bring balance, care and compassion to her new position.
are unwelcome, and do not belong in our society? Where are the Hebrew Bible prophets reminding us of our responsibilities to protect the orphan, the widow and the stranger? It is “we, the people” who are being tested to extreme limits. Will we pass the test?
Each of us can try harder. Do more. Do better. Only the passage of time will show if our collective resolve and hard work creates a unity that truly honors those we loved and lost.
On a personal note, I remain humbled and grateful to still be here among congregants, family, friends and community members who share that place, time and memory of something so profound that happened to us all and changed us in the process. May their memories be a blessing to us forever.
Rabbi Hazzan Jeffrey Myers is the rabbi of Tree of Life * Or L’Simcha in Pittsburgh.
Does the Talmud have any advice for social distancing during a plague? Can robots be Jewish?
STUMP THE RABBI By the staffs of Washington Jewish Week and Baltimore Jewish Times They say there are no dumb questions. Somehow that doesn’t help when you want to know something and are afraid to ask. But the staffs of Baltimore Jewish Times and Washington Jewish Week are professional questioners. We’ve asked our local rabbis the questions you want answered — as well as some you don’t. It’s all in the spirit of Jewish knowledge, and trying to find out if we could stump the rabbi.
The concept of social distancing isn’t foreign to the Talmud, explained Rabbi Joshua Gruenberg, senior rabbi of Chizuk Amuno Congregation, in Pikesville. There is a part in the Talmud where the rabbis say to stay home during a plague, and one rabbi went so far as to keep his windows shut. At the same time, people believed that plagues were caused by spiritual misdoings, and that during a plague the community should look inward to correct what they were doing wrong.
“Obviously, we wouldn’t think that our sins caused COVID,” Gruenberg said. “But on some level, as we are dealing with a global pandemic, it is a good time for us to explore our society, because this pandemic does bring to the forefront certain ills of our society that it didn’t create, but that it certainly magnifies.” Selah Maya Zighelboim
What inspired God to create humanity?
Rabbi Nochum Katsenelenbogen, of Chabad Owings Mills, said that before creation, God was missing nothing — except a relationship. God was alone and God wanted a relationship with free beings. So God created us and gave us ways of connecting to Him — the mitzvot, Katsenelenbogen said.
“So, God doesn’t need us; He wants us,” the rabbi said. “He didn’t give us commandments because He needs them to be fulfilled, but because He wants us to relate to Him.”
Katsenelenbogen pointed out that if God created humanity because God needed us to do something, then we would have been disposed of after the mission was fulfilled. “But God needs nothing. He chose to bring us into being as a pure act of love.” Carolyn Conte
What is a Jewish custom that didn’t exist 100 years ago?
The “traditional” bar and bat mitzvah candle lighting ceremony. Rabbi Charles Arian of Kehilat Shalom in Gaithersburg likes to put “traditional” in air quotes because, he said, it’s fairly newfangled as Jewish practices go. “The bat mitzvah didn’t even exist 100 years ago,” he said.
Usually conducted by the DJ during the party, the ceremony involves family and friends being called to light a candle for someone who couldn’t attend the celebration. “The DJ almost always refers to it as the ‘traditional’ candle lighting ceremony,” Arian said, which gives it a sense of being a hallowed religious custom even though, if the party is on a Saturday afternoon, it ignores the fact “that lighting candles actually violates Shabbat.”
Arian remembers attending a bar mitzvah party with his wife, a Jew by choice who was never taught about the traditional bar and bat mitzvah candle lighting ceremony in her conversion classes. Arian composed a rhyme to give her a sense of how candle lighters are traditionally called to the menorah. “You’re my best friend
Even though you’re not a Jew.
So Mary Christina
Come light candle number 2.”
Arian said the motivation behind the practice is a commendable one, and the idea of turning it into a Jewish tradition is understandable.
“The motivation is good — it honors people who can’t be there. There’s a desire to slot the practice in an accessible category and to fit into the chain of Jewish tradition, when it’s counter to tradition,” Arian said. “It reflects legitimate Jewish instincts.” David Holzel
Does Judaism believe in exorcism? And would you perform one if asked?
“Like so many, many, many things that may seem obscure, exorcism is something you can find in Judaism,” said Rabbi Amy
What does Judaism say about cremation?
Traditionally, Judaism does not endorse the practice, said Rabbi Rory Katz of Chevrei Tzedek Congregation, in Baltimore. “There’s a belief in the importance of maintaining the integrity of the human body, and a desire for the person to be able to return to the soil in a natural way,” she said, adding that some draw a negative connection between cremation and the Holocaust.
Still, “I am sure there are good reasons people choose to do cremation,” she said. “Like most rules in Judaism there’s always good reasons for exceptions.” Jesse Berman
Can robots be Jewish?
“From an Orthodox perspective, I don’t think that will be possible because, based on precedent, only humans are able to become Jewish,” said Rabbi Eli Yoggev of Beth Tfiloh Congregation, in Pikesville.
Yoggev pointed to a responsa of Rabbi Chacham Tzvi that addresses whether a golem, which shares some similarity to a robot because it is life-like and created by a human, could form part of a minyan. He concludes that a golem could not count as part of a minyan.
“We count the birthing process in terms of, genetically, being given birth to from a woman, a human, a female,” Yoggev said. “There’s precedent from that from the Bible and tradition, where it talks about somebody being from a woman.”
Exploring the question of whether robots could be Jewish brings up some interesting points about what makes something human, Yoggev noted. Intellect and speech are signs of humanity, but Yoggev doesn’t define humanity by those traits. Some may also say that what makes something human is a human soul. Yoggev personally doesn’t focus on this because souls are difficult to understand and define. Selah Maya Zighelboim
Schwartzman of Temple Rodef Shalom, in Falls Church.
Schwartzman said there is at least one example of an exorcism-like event in the Tanach, or Hebrew Bible. In the Book of First Samuel, King Saul was being invaded by an evil spirit until David relieved him by playing the harp. Schwartzman said there are also references to exorcism in various texts, such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which mentions disease-causing demons.
But if a congregant approached Schwartzman for an exorcism, “the answer would be no. Maybe there is some rabbi out there who has done it, but I’m not the right person.”
Schwartzman said she would certainly meet with the person and try to help them any way she could. It’s possible the person could be mentally unstable or have other challenges. In that case, Schwartzman would refer them to the proper social services or medical care.
But if a person truly believed they had to have an exorcism, Schwartzman said she wouldn’t know where to start.
“I had no classes in rabbinical school on exorcisms. So I really don’t know much more than those basic facts.” Eric Schucht
Why did God wait until Mt. Sinai to present the Torah to the Jewish people, instead of presenting it to Abraham, the first Jew?
Abraham did not receive the Torah because the Jewish people had to be more ready for it, said Rabbi Etan Mintz of B’nai Israel in downtown Baltimore.
“The Jewish people had to go through the transformative experience of becoming a nation, of going through the exile and going through the Exodus, until they were ready for the revelation at Sinai, at that seminal moment of the receiving of the Torah,” Mintz said. Selah Maya Zighelboim
Who is your favorite character in the Talmud?
That would be like asking Rabbi Sarah Krinsky of Adas Israel Congregation, in Washington, D.C., who her favorite congregant is. But prominent in Krinsky’s winner’s circle is Beruriah, a firstcentury Torah authority whose father and husband were sages. Beruriah was known for her wisdom and piety — and for being one of the few women in the Talmud known by name.
“We meet her first when a few rabbis are talking about her,” Krinsky said.
The Talmud says that she learned 300 laws from 300 teachers in one day. She was that good. So when Rabbi Simlai came to Rabbi Yohanan and asked Yohanan to teach him the Book of Genealogies within three months, Yohanan berated him:
“If Beruriah couldn’t learn the material in three years, how can you expect to learn it in three months?”
What we start to learn about her is that she’s not about learning for the sake of learning more.
“Her Torah learning makes her more compassionate.”
Beruriah was married to Rabbi Meir. Their neighbors threw loud, drunken parties that interfered with the rabbi’s Torah studies. Once he grew so angry that he prayed for God to get rid of them. Beruriah overheard and reminded him that the Psalmist called for the end of sin, not of sinners. One should pray that evil
“The rabbis teach us that there are 70 faces of the Torah,” said Rabbi Andrew Busch of Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. “Judaism has always understood there are a multitude of understandings of any biblical text.”
While some verses — like the prohibition of murder — seem straightforward, Busch said that “our tradition has always seen a rich multiplicity of views, in terms of how we might understand the text.” Jesse Berman
The JerusalemApartment
What’s the best joke you’ve ever heard involving a rabbi?
Here’s Rabbi Hyim Shafner’s favorite: “Yosseleh, a young congregant, comes to the rabbi for a shidduch, a match for marriage. The rabbi fixes him up with woman after woman, but the young man always has some complaint. One is too short. One too tall. One too fat. One too thin. Finally, exasperated, the rabbi says to him, ‘Yosseleh, you are looking for a person, not an etrog!’ “I can’t remember when I first heard it,” said Shafner, who leads Kesher Israel in Georgetown. “It was a long time ago. I like it because it is a joke that teaches something profound; in this case that humans, and especially partners, are not measured by how objectively perfect or fitting they are.” Eric Schucht
TheJerusalemApartment.com
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disappears, then there will be no evildoers. Meir realized she was right. Beruriah knew her husband well and how to comfort him, Krinsky said.Jewish Times One Shabbat, when Rabbi Meir was at Ad Name services, their sons died suddenly in their room. Beruriah covered them up and told no one, including her husband when he returned in the Sales Rep Date evening. “They have gone out,” she said when he Name asked about them, then prepared Havdalah and the evening meal. Date Created: When he had finished eating, she told him 1st proof Date: she had a problem that she’d like some advice about: Something had been left to her in safe 2nd proof Date: keeping. Now the owner wanted it back. Must she return it?
Of course, Meir said.
Beruriah led her husband to the bed where their sons lay. Meir was devastated. But Beruriah reminded him that God had given them their sons and now God had taken them back.
This midrash may not appeal to the modern sensibility, Krinsky said, but it shows that “she’s taking her Torah knowledge and using it to bring comfort to another person.
“She operated within the gender system she was born into,” Krinsky added. “I love that she was able to find a powerful place for herself in her family and in society.” David Holzel
What does Jewish law say about genetic tinkering?
Rabbi Velvel Belinsky of Ariel Center, in Pikesville, said the answer depends on why you’re tinkering.
“When a woman is pregnant, if the doctors found out there is something unhealthy about the child, then definitely it is a mitzvah to try to prevent all of the illness the child might have after birth,” he said. However, it’s not OK to eliminate the fetus altogether because of a disability, as all life is sacred.
But when it comes to artificial treatment of a specific gene to design a baby with dark or light hair for the parents’ preference, it’s not OK.
“Every medical involvement comes with side effects. So, if this medical involvement prevents or heals an ailment, it is not only permitted but required by Jewish law. But if the medical involvement is for a desire, this is where it would come with the cost of unwelcome side effects, and Jewish law would not allow that.” Carolyn Conte
Jesse Berman and Carolyn Conte are staff reporters for Baltimore Jewish Times. Eric Schucht is staff writer for Washington Jewish Week. Selah Maya Zighelboim is editor of Baltimore Jewish Times. David Holzel is editor of Washington Jewish Week.
