Rabbi Arie Chark http://www.jta.org/user/profile/65105 en-us zsilberman@washingtonjewishweek.com Copyright 2012 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I agree with you, Rabbi Aryeh, but I believe you lost a teaching moment. Mussa (Arabic for Moshe, which is Hebrew for Moses), the Shabbat is a festive day, as you acknowledge, but it is also a day on which observant Jews refrain from mundane, weekday activities. The restaurant would be closed because commerce does not take place on Shabbat. That's also why the Y will not be handling money. The Y should remain closed. I can see no reason for it to be open. Even if the opening is mission driven it's still, in the end, about money. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I'd ask Steven who you were, Ross, but I haven't seen him since I stopped eating at The Milky Way, which was owned by his mother and stepfather. Furthermore, I don't much care who you are. I do, however, care very much that you have sullied the useless deaths of two young people with your vile ignorance. As to you, Cheryl, my earnest advice is to please speak nicely or stay silent. Come to think of it, that also applies to you, Ross. Kindest regards to both of you, Rabbi Arie Chark 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Rabbi Chark is a Canadian. And unlike Mr Rodgers I do not need to make sweeping generalisations about Americans and the way they are educated. I have lived in Morristown (NJ), New York City, Brooklyn, and Los Angeles. I have travelled to 15 of the 50 States and DC, most recently last summer, and have been to every Canadian province except Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. I wonder if you can tell me the capital of any Canadian province or of Canada itself, Mr Rodgers? Are are you soooo stupid that you can't possibly even pass a basic test in US civics? Let me point out a few facts: No one in this country is denied medical treatment because they can't pay. We have had a black, female Head of State since 2005. Ms Jean is the third female of our last five Governors-General. Four of the last six GGs have been ethnic: German, Ukrainian, Chinese, and Haitian. The Rt Hon Herb Gray was the first Jewish prime minister of Canada,albeit as Acting PM while the Liberal Party was electing a new leader. A Canadian without a bank account is almost unheard of, though of course people do fall through the cracks Almost 50% of Canadians have a passport. Speaking of banks, not a single Canadian bank failed during the economic meltdown last year. I guess that's because Canadians are sooo stupid we didn't evolve to the point of becoming unregulated capitalist robber-barons. Reb A. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 It is not the cost of the coffin so much as the cost of the land associated with the burial that causes issues. Furthemore, synagogues who serve larger segment of the general Jewish community, often charge higher fees for non-members or for members who are delinquent on their various fees. I wish Mr Poppers' assertion was correct. Simple wooden caskets are *not* the norm except among *informed* members of Orthodox communities, whose number is quite small in relation to the size of the overall Jewish community of America. There are any number of nominally Orthodox who get buried in expensive coffins and the number is even higher for unobservant Jews. There is no prohibition whatever to the type of coffin one is buried in, contrary to popular Orthodox belief. I would additionally urge Mr Poppers to be much less smug. His opinion isn't that humble. Reb Arie 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I would ask American conservative Christians to please leave our media alone. Being an activist I am easy to mistake for a liberal, which I am most assuredly not. I am a confirmed centrist that skews left on social issues but skews right on legal,moral,ethical, and religious ones. I am the av bet din "presiding judge" of a nascent beth din in Ottawa, where I am a rabbi. Those who use "Hussein" as an insult don't know either Hebrew or Arabic. In Hebrew *Khosn* means "vigor" or "robust" and this root also informs, eventually, *khoshn* "breatsplate". A major section of Jewish law is called *Khoshn Mishpat* "The Breastplate of Judgement". *Barack*, of course, means "blessing". What's to insult? 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I will comment to Doonebury or Slate or whomsoever. But first let me comment to you: What do they need to be called on? American bankers and the faith Christian administrators who "regulated" them depleted capital from the world economy and perpetrated a massive fraud on the US economy. Where is the anti-Jewish rhetoric in pointing that out?! As to the vengeful so-called "Old Testament" G!d -- It's not an old Testament to Jews -- yes, I agree, that rhetoric is old and tired. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I have two perspective I want to share on this matter. 1. Only someone who has never lifted a gun and shot at other people could for a moment think that such a policy would work. I have done both and have permanently damaged ankles from the bullets I have taken in return. Manis's remarks are absurd and didn't work even in Biblical times. When Sha'ul Ha'Melekh "King Saul" was mandated to do kill every living thing he oversaw a general slaughter but permitted booty, which was a humanitarian gesture for ancient warfare. The Prophet Shmuel was extremely upset and prophesied the downfall of the House of Sha'ul, which occurred. 2. While I would say that Manis is widely representative of Lubavitchers, I would *not* say that he represents the Lubavitcher mainstream because there is no Lubavitcher mainstream. Since the Rebbe died there has been less and less cohesion among Lubavitcher shlukhim (local Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis who typically run "Chabad Houses"). I am close to many who believe that any day now the Rebbe will arsie from his qever "grave" and lead us into the Coming World. I am close to others who reject that as nonsense. I know some of the deep mystics of the Chabad system, of whom here are fewer and fewer, and I know others for whom mystical approaches are something to pay lip-service, which is typical. Mr Arnold is under no obligation to believe in G!d. He is under an obligation to be civil. Capital letters are not civil and his shrill perspectives are irritating without being informative. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The British Commonwealth? What's that? I have only ever heard of it called The Commonwealth or Commonwealth of Nations in Canada, and this is generally the accepted term elsewhere also. With respect to the Commonwealth, Rabbi Sacks does have some influence in Commonwealth nations such as Australia and New Zealand, and he has sent shlukhim to these places and elsewhere. He has no authority there, as such, because the Commonwealth is an intergovernmental organisation. What authority he is accorded is due to his leadership stature. Rabbi Sacks is not the Chief Rabbi of Canada, which has adopted the US-style of congregational affiliation. Our shuls are generally affiliated either with the OU or the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Perhaps 25 belong to the URJ and I believe three shuls in Canada are affiliated with the Reconstructionist movement. R Sacks did not refuse to honour Louis Jacobs. This decision was made by the congregational rabbi presiding at the aufruf honouring the groom of R Jacobs' grand-daughter. R Sacks was, sadly, bound by an absurd institutional response within the UK United Synagogue movement. I'm not apologising for the CR, whose public remarks were scandalous, as was his refusal to attend the funeral of Hugo Grin, an outstanding leader of UK Reform, which produces true scholarship of Judaism and is perhaps more "left-wing" Conservative in an American context. I regard R Sacks as my Chief Rabbi even as I am to his left on many social issues. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I am tremendously saddened by the immaturity evident in these posts. Mr Watkins, Mr Tzarfati, and Alamobpo are all likely the same person; if not, their remarks are all equally inane. There is enough Jew-hatred in this world without a bunch of misinformed homophobes contributing their vile and stupid remarks. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Yes, R Lamm is gloating. He's also 82, so let him gloat. Will it kill you? I live in Canada, where I am a Chasidic rabbi and maintain a clinical practice in spiritual direction. Orthodoxy is mainstream here and runs perhaps slightly ahead of Conservative Judaism. There are 5 Orthodox synagogues in Ottawa, where I live, compared to three Conservative. Reform and Recon are present in Canada but hardly normative -- Reform has 26 synagogues and Recon has four. Maimonides has already answered your question, Mr Pressman. Rambam maintains that one's Judaism is premised on mitzva, not myth. He's quite clear on that, and holds utterly rational perspectives on, for example, the waters of the Red Sea parting. It's a common Chabad ploy to use Maimonides and completely misrepresent his scientific outlook as faith-based. Poppycock. As to your premise about what the Orthodox do or do not believe, I would urge you to actually participate in Orthodox communities and learn something of these perspective. You can then criticise them to your heart's delight. I've been doing it myself for years. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I would not define social justice by tiqun olam, which literally eans "world reparation". The idea that tiqun olam is one with social justice is constantly announced by Michael Lerner, and repeated by many both in and out of Jewish Renewal, but it simply isn't so. There is a single, elegant Hebrew word for social justice: Tzedaqa. This is more than a quibble about words. Rabbis Jill Jacobs, Danya Ruttenberg, Or Rose -- these are the young people who teach me what tzedaqa really means. They have gone well beyond the pretty words that Michael and my other contemporary colleagues write. These young people get their hands dirty. I'm not criticising Michael, Arthur Waskow, Zalman Schachter, et al. These are people I've been influenced by and who have given me a legitimate option as a rabbi and activist in my own right. But much of what they say is conditoned by an American missiology that I, as a Canadian, cannot accept. My country has one one of the three largest J-pops in the world outside the United States. What have I ever read in Tikkun magazine that is directly applicable to my experience as a Jewish Canadian? Nothing. It's as if we don't exist. Why should a Canadian spiritual progressive need to work with a model, such as Michael's, that gives no consideration to how Jewish Canada differs from American Judaisms? I'm a rabbi, so I've always been a talker -- but I've always preferred doing over speaking and over the years I've come to appreciate how wise Rabban Shimon was when he said in Pirqei Avot that "Too much talk leads to sin" (PA 1:17). Simple acts of tzedeq, as inspired by Jill Jacobs, Danya Ruttenberg and Or Rose, are much preferred. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Reb Arthur's Top Five List is essentially correct. The lack of any credible commentary by Medearis and Edwards is quite sad, really, and their knees must be in constant pain from those jerking actions. Rabbi Waskow gives serious commentary for consideration. You do not have to agree with him. You do have to provide something more than ill-thought, borderline racism. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The indiscriminate stupidity of some of these postings leaves me very saddened by the current state of American society and very grateful I live in Canada. Not that we don't have our government-sanctioned racisms, we certainly do, but we also have a vigorous way of prosecuting such malfeasance through public inquiries under the Inquiries Act, including the awarding of compensation. AIPAC is a tremendous problematic for the Jewish community in America, a J-comm that is largely disconnected from Israel. This is quite distinct from Canada, where the J-comm is overtly Zionist and very connected to Israel. AIPAC, very unfortunately, is widely representative of conservative and neoconservative perspectives that probably do not well-represent the majority of American Jews. Are Rosen and Weissman spies? No. They are ill-informed American Jews who have forgotten that their primary loyalty is to the nation in which they were born, raised, and educated. They are very fortunate to have encountered a tolerant and no-nonsense judge who obviously understands the US Constitution better than the overzealous Assistant US Attorneys who began the prosecution. Mishna Pirqei Avot tells us to pray for the welfare of the government. I suggest that Rosen and Weissman begin to do so and then to go on to learn appropriate religious Jewish responses that go beyond the superficial observances of the American Jewish civil religion that is Israel and the Holocaust. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Bnai Brith Canada, once a trusted and even vaunted Jewish communal organisation in this country, is completely without credibility on this or any other matter it reports on. BB had stifled dissent in its ranks, even to the extent of purging long-term members; it has veered so sharply to the right that it allies with socially conservative Christian organisations; it picks fights with Canadian Jewish Congress and Federation in Toronto for completely inexplicable reasons. It has left the ranks of the Jewish mainstream and does not represent me or anyone I know. Is there an increase in anti-Semitism in Canada? Certainly moronic propaganda such as the absurd "Israel Apartheid Week" are used as cover by anti-Semites. And certainly IAW attracts also Jews I would identify as overtly left-wing political operators who are conflicted about Jewish identity if not entirely self-hating. But I have never been targeted by goyim, and I do **NOT** use the word pejoratively, because I am a Jew -- and I'm pretty obvious: long payot (sidelocks) to my chin, a black kipa, tzitzit outside my pants, untrimmed beard, black beret, etc. etc. Reb Arie 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Daniel Pipes and I agree on something?! Wow. I never thought that would happen. Next thing you know, I'll have something to agree with Noam Chomsky about. Nah. Some things are simply not meant to be. OK, so I lied a tiny bit. I do not *entirely* agree with Pipes. I'm a Canadian and there is no Canadian equivalent to First Amendment rights -- nor should there be. Free speech is not unlimited speech and I think that Mr Wilders may have crossed the line. We certainly agree, however, that Mr Wilders should be permitted to make his case publicly -- whether the public is in the UK, Holland, the US, or Canada. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 Trite, I would certainly say that Caryl Churchill's play is trite; tripe? By no means. Seven Jewish Children is the disconnected meanderings of an anguished bleeding heart; a foolish middle-aged liberal who is bemused to discover that she is thought to be an anti-semite -- which, indeed, she may be, but I do not see any evidence of that in her play. That the Board of Deputies calls her anti-Israel? So what? Being anti-Israel is not a crime and it is not anti-semitism. I live in Canada. I assure you that I am anti-British: British great grandparents partitioned my country and caused a problem that still plagues us 142 years later. British grandparents partitioned Palestine and caused a problem that still plagues us 90 years after the Turks were defeated and the Mandate was established. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 The comment by Zyskander A. Jaimot is ridiculous. I have mixed feelings about Mr Mariaschin's article. We certainly agree about Mr Chavez. I'd go so far as to compare Chavez to Chmilnicki, who did actually not hate Jews -- they were simply in the way, they were usually kulaks (middle class) and had to be eliminated. That attitude is actually worse than anti-Semitic and the Chavez rhetoric seems similar. Unfortunately, BBI has a habit of announcing that anyone who disagrees with an established -- and Establishment -- understanding of Jews and Judaism is (if they are not themselves Jews) anti-Jewish if not anti-Semitic or (if they are Jews) unworthy of serious attention. The BBI crying wolf does not get my attention. If the Venezuelan Jews feel unsafe they should leave and UJC monies should be allocated to assist them in moving to Israel. Not a penny should be sent on encouraging them to enter the US or Canada. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 OK,let's get something straight. The "levirate marriage", in which a widow marries her husband's brother, is completely contrary to modern Jewish tradition. The institution is banned in Israel by a Takanna (rabbinic decree) of he Rabanut (the state-sanctioned rabbinic system) issued in 1950. One can go to jail in Israel for ignoring the Takanna. As to Ms Essman and her ridiculous comments, what of them (or her)? You get what you deserve if your cultural milestones come The View. That's like getting unbiased news reporting from FOX. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00 I am a rabbi. The Conservatives think me Orthodox, the Orthodox think me Reform, and I have no idea what Reform may think of me. This is how it should be. With few exceptions no one knows how the individual Tanna'im (Mishnaic rabbis) were affiliated. Rabbi Herring has made a serious mistake here. 2012-02-09T;22:54:00-05:00