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Email Luke Essays Profiles Archives Search LF.net Luke Ford Profile Dennis Prager Luke blogs up storm on Protocols May 16 - Same Sex Marriage Debate Rochelle Levy My Old Schoolmates From Elementary School I attended sixth through eighth grade at the Seventh Day Adventist Pacific Union College in the Napa Valley. I just heard from a classmate's mother about some of my schoolmates: Denise B (love of my life then) – I understand she is married and may be living in Germany I got a letter from Seventh Day Adventist friends of my family when we all lived in Australia:
Bad Joke Jesus and Satan were having an ongoing argument about who was better on his computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job." So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away. They moused. They faxed. They E-mailed. They E-mailed with attachments. They downloaded. They did spreadsheets. They wrote reports. They created labels and cards. They created charts and graphs. They did some genealogy reports. They did every job known to man. Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell. Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers. Satan started searching frantically, screaming "It's gone! It's all GONE! "I lost everything when the power went out!" Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past two hours of work. Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed, "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said, "Jesus saves." The Making Of A Gadol Making of a Godol: A Study of Episodes in the Lives of Great Torah Personalities. Author: Rabbi Nathan Kamenetzky. Price: $2000 each. "Rabbi Nathan Kamenetzky" is my pen name. Dr. Samuel C. Heilman on the death of Modern Orthodoxy. Link thanks to FailedMessiah.com. 'Do You Want To Steal Me?' Wearing my black kipa, I was walking through an African-American community Monday afternoon, seeking converts, passing out Torah tracts. Two black boys played on the sidewalk. I smiled at them as I strode on, absorbed in my Torah studies (Bee Season by Myla Goldberg). They kicked something my way. I walked on. They chased after me yelling. I removed my headphones. I couldn't understand what the boy was saying. Then, when I thought I understood what he was saying, I couldn't believe it. Finally, I believed my ears. "Do you want to steal me?" Has he had bad experiences with Orthodox Jews? I said no. They ran off. Kids love me. Vote Luke Off Protocols Marc writes: "These bloggers [in the latest New Yorker] can brag--but have any of them ever been voted off a blog? I think not." Elder of Protocols, Sam Singer (medical student at YU) writes: "There's been a lot of anger directed toward Luke in the comments of his (and others' posts). There's been a lot of ridicule thrown the way of protocols due to his continued membership. We've lost long-standing members of our community, who've fled in disgust. Why should we let the voice of one man dictate our e-polity's future? I say, lets vote to see whether Luke gets to (over)stay on the island. I'll cast the first stone: Luke - You're fired! Anyone second the motion?" Der Nister writes Protocols: "I would say his time is over here. Again, it's not just the often inappropriate nature of his posts, but their numbing length and frequency. He is a guest who will not observe the rules of the summer rental, the dinner table, the time share -- name your metaphor." Chaim Amalek writes: "The Bnai AMALEK say Luke should be banned from every group that does not want him. Less Luke means more room for AMALEK to spread his ancient message of universal tolerance and love." A writes:
Shmarya writes: "Inappropriate posts? Sure. But not nearly as inappropriate as many of the comments left here by 'frum' people. It's amazing how fast Halakha goes out the window when someone becomes the other. Look at it this way: You had a marvelous opportunity to have a positive effect on Luke, and you blew it." J.J. Belrose writes: "I'm not a born Jew. I want to say that I find Luke Ford to be an embarrassment to both my Jewishness and my non-Jewishness. I don't understand why he's being given a platform here and I'm hoping he'll be asked to leave until he has worked out some of his problems. I agree he needs counselling and guidance, but I don't think that Protocol readers should be expected to provide him with the professional help he needs. Anyone who wants to try to help him should surely do so privately. I used to love Protocols, but I won't be staying if Luke Ford's posting continues." The Losangelesher Rebbiwrites: "Keep him. Let he who is without sin throw the first stone." Tough Jewish Chick writes: "What WIMPS you hebes have become! Luke publishes a few things that granted, are a bit off-kilter, and all of you have your tzitzis in a knot. No wonder many great women are having such a tough time finding decent Jewish MEN to marry." The Los Angeles Times Swerves Off the ‘High Road’ In Its Israel Coverage. Jack writes:
What type of repentant sinners do Jews love? Repentance is much more demanding in Judaism than Christianity (in the Jewish way, you have to make reparations to those you've wronged before you can approach God). Therefore, Jews tend to kvell less about big sinners finding their way back than do Christians. We don't rejoice over murderers and rapists finding God as much as Christians do. But certain types of sinners are embraced by Jews. Those sinners whose sin was hating Jews. Tuesday afternoon, UCLA Hillel hosts "Wallid Shoebat, former PLO Terrorist whom was once a PLO Fatah Terrorist that backed out of his suicide mission at the last moment. Come hear the testimony of how he once only wanted to become a martyr. He now spends his time confronting the culture of hate, jihad, and martyrdom which he sees as the major source of conflict in the Middle East." I'm listening now to Wallid on Dennis Prager's radio show. I know Orthodox Jews like to hear the stories of sincere converts and baalei teshuvot, particularly former Reform rabbis. Jews like to hear from Christian clergy who used to hate Jews. Who else? Anyone read that great I.B. Singer book, The Penitent? The more we reward behaviors such as penitence, the more we will get of them. Still, we only have limited love to give. I like the New Testament parable of the prodigal son, and I must confess my sentiments lie more with the upright son who never strayed (though my life more resembles the prodigal). I say unto you, go and sin no more. Orthodox Spinsters Miriam writes about the large number of successful but single women in Orthodoxy: "...[M]any of our men don’t know how to relate to, or just plain don’t like the idea of, women who are more educated, more ambitious and more successful in their careers than ever before in history." I hear this point all the time. As someone who has frequently dated women who are above him in social status, I think the issue lies elsewhere: Women, overwhelmingly, will not marry someone who is below her in social status. I don't blame them for this, as I don't blame men who do not want to woo women that do not attract them physically. This is just how God made us. It's amusing how often men and women want to blame the opposite sex for their singlehood. In this Haaretz article, one woman claims that single women "are warned not to be too successful." Well, I hate to be harsh, but look at her picture. Cathy writes:
Jackie writes:
I also find it interesting that in these discussions that it never seems to occur to women that they may be doing something wrong, such as pursuing career rather than marriage when they are at their most eligible (their 20s). Professional and educational accomplishments don't make a woman attractive to a man. Frequently, the opposite. What a man most wants is a woman who cares to make herself look sexy for him and to make him the most important thing in her life, more important than work (from Dennis Prager). What women seek in a man is much more complicated, which is why women file for two-thirds of divorces. Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies Dave Robb has published his first book (Prometheus, the publisher of my first book). It's a shame nobody is buying it (based on the Amazon sales ranking of 1,065,572). The notion that the Pentagon censors movies by not cooperating with ones it deems unfriendly to its aims is ludicrous. That is not censorship. It is simply a refusal to cooperate. A friend writes me:
Anita Busch writes:
LT writes: "I would say that since Anita Busch clearly states that she is a friend of Robb's in her comments on Amazon, there is nothing whatsoever unethical about her writing what she did on his book. It would have been unethical if she DID NOT reveal that she was his friend." Dave Robb's friend Dan Moldea writes:
Interrupting Cecile du Bois's Dance Recital My friend Cecile, 15, invited me to her dance recital motzi Shabbos (after the Sabbath). Little did I know that it would be a mixed dance recital. As soon as I saw boys and girls dancing together, I ran out into the middle of the obscenity and screamed, "The Torah does not permit this." I kept screaming until the police came to take me away to a room where I couldn't hurt myself. Matt Welch was later heard to say: "Teenage dancing and Luke Ford do not mix well." A Torah Jew does not seek popularity. He stands up for what he knows to be right. Emma writes: "Hey Luke, You missed a flurry of teenage girls dancing on stage on very inapropriate songs, such as "dirty" from Christina Aguilera. Matt and I were outraged. Cecile was very cute, as usual. And Jerry {C's father] is really charming when he does his card tricks." More Evidence For Why Orthodox Judaism As Lived Today Is Intellectually Dead What was the last novel you read about Orthodox life that was intellectually challenging? I can't think of any since Chaim Potok's. I just finished "The Outside World" by Tova Mirvis (Knopf, $24). Sandee Brawarsky, of The Jewish Week, gives it a gushing review. "The Outside World" is a quick, easy, shallow read. Nothing in it surprised or delighted me. It never once caused me to laugh. I think girls might like it but there's nothing in here to please a man. I'm thinking the problem here goes deeper than just another shallow novel about Orthodoxy. What's really going on is that since Rabbi Hertz (he died around 1942), Orthodoxy has ceased taking modern scholarship seriously, and the greater world. Orthodox rabbis don't struggle with Biblical criticism or historical scholarship that shows that the Exodus did not occur as portrayed in the Torah. Orthodox Judaism is now lived without reference to the wider world (beyond making a living and adapting to social trends and mores). It's insular. It doesn't struggle with questions that come from without. The only reason to interact with goyim is to make money from them. The reason that the best spokesmen for Orthodoxy come from the diaspora is that diaspora Orthodoxy is less insular than Israeli Orthodoxy. There's a reason we study the Babylonian Talmud today and the Jerusalem Talmud little. The Bavli was produced in the diaspora, in a more intellectually challenging environment. I can't think of a character in novels about Orthodoxy since Chaim Potok who has struggled with reconciling his faith with the learning of the wider world. Outside of its own boundaries, outside of political and social trends, Orthodox Judaism as lived today is largely intellectually dead. Just look at the trivial concerns of Protocols before I came along. Please provide me with examples of where I am wrong. The person who asks the most interesting questions about Orthodoxy is not Orthodox -- Dennis Prager. PS. I only post here because of popular demand. I'd much rather spend my time with gemara. Sam writes: "Listen, I don’t have issues with most provocation, and I understand that you are trying for a parodic/absurd style. But while you might think your “schvartze” posts are exposing orthodox attitudes towards race, I find that most people are oblivious to the satire, and see them as blatant racism. Remember that protocols is a group endeavor, and we all stand to be tarred by the same brush as you do – I have plenty of non-Jewish hits to our site who have been appalled by some of your stuff. You are entitled to do what you want on your own blog, but please exercise at lease a modicum of restraint and judgment on ours." Out of Step Jew, Ira Slomowitz, writes:
Levi, Get Your Gun I sat at home Friday night reading a novel on Vietnam, Fields of Fire. I heard strange noises outside. I felt nervous. I tried to ignore them. Then I heard my landlady screaming from the main house that there was a stranger in the backyard. A motion-sensor light flicked on. I poked my head out of my door and saw nobody. The lady said he was hiding behind a tree. She screamed she was calling the police. I saw a young black man stand up and run away across the neighbor's roof. He appeared about 6' tall, about 18, wearing a black backpack, white t-shirt, and black pants. My landlady screamed for me to dial 9-1-1. I dove inside my hovel, locked my door, and reached for my gun. I loaded it on lap, then dialed. The police arrived 20 minutes later. We never saw the intruder again. I'm sure that if George Bush only spent more money on social welfare programs like midnight basketball, the black man wouldn't have danced on my roof. It was his lonely protest against white racism. About two years ago, several black men trashed the main house. Many of my Orthodox friends in the community have been robbed, or held up at knife point or gun point by young black men. XX writes: "Well... based on your very thorough, scientific, survey results, I suggest that everyone go out and buy a gun and then photograph themselves handling it in an unsafe, improper manner." M. writes:
In Memory Of Ariel Avrech The father of the late Ner Israel yeshiva bocher Ariel Avrech, Robert, has started a blog in his son's memory. He's also starting a publishing house for Jewish teenagers, Seraphic Press. Judaism Should Seek Converts Dennis Prager says we should seek the convert. Beware, some Luke Fords out there might heed the call. At one point, I wanted to be the poster child for converts. Josh writes Protocols: "Judaism doesn't need covnerts. We only need the non-Jews to follow seven simple laws. That's a lot easier than taking on 613. Dennis Prager is hardly the one to speak on this issue. He is certainly no halachic authority. Perhaps he should increase in his own observance first before telling people to go out and find "New Jews"." Mark writes: "I would say Luke is the poster-child for NOT seeking converts." Shmarya writes: "Judaism sought converts until the penalty for doing so became too great after Churban Bayit Sheini and even more so after the Bar Kokhba Revolt failed. Beit Shammai seems to have opposed this (see, for example, Talmud Yerushalmi Shabbat 1:4) while Beit Hillel encouraged it. It seems that after Churban Bayit Sheini under the leadership of Rabban Gamliel, for the sake of unity Beit Hillel changed its position on seeking converts to be closer to the position of Beit Shammai, to create a 'compromise position'. In short, history supports Prager, even if our now-common practice does not." Rabbi Gadol writes:
Button writes:
All About Eve Cathy Seipp has been educating me on classic films. Tonight we watched All About Eve. Cathy knew someone who reminded her of Eve. I knew someone who reminded me of the Bette Davis character. I'm on edge because I need to proof two books (340,000 words total) in two weeks. Cathy's on edge because of the inability of the world to recognize that she's always right. "This is the time when you're supposed to chip in with a supportive comment," she told me at the end of a passionate tirade. We got intense and discordant over our dinner of beans and cheese (yummy). I rarely choose to watch old black and white films. They remind me of my wholesome childhood when they and Disney movies were about the only movies I was allowed to watch. I'm noticing that these old films, compared to modern films, have more talk, more speeches, and more theatricality than current films. I drive home behind an electric car with the license plate, "Pass Gas." Black TV Reporter Warren Wilson, Lucky To Have A Job, Whines About Discrimination Kevin Roderick at LA Observed.com reports:
I worked at KTLA for several months in the fall of 1997. Warren Wilson was known around the station as a horrible man. Rude, nasty, and unethical. He'd been reprimanded several times by station management, who were exceedingly tolerant of their employees. I remember the receptionist was a frequently rude woman, with a severe limp, who'd yell at callers and hang up on them. Warren Wilson did a story about some guy, set him up with a particular lawyer, then went after either the lawyer/or guy in question for a payoff. If you read RonFineman.com, you know Wilson is a shoddy reporter who's lucky to have a job. There are a lot of people working at KTLA who would never last at any other major TV station. KTLA is an awesome place to work. I so wanted to get taken on permanently there in 1997. They paid me well as a temp and treated me well. Management bends over backwards to be fair and kind. Employee morale is high. Most people at KTLA are super. I remember this black female TV reporter who was just adorable and made everybody relax and laugh, cutting across color lines. I am known to utter non-PC sentiments but this woman just made all my crap go away. Blogger Without A Clue Author of the Luke Ford Fan Blog writes:
In Loving Memory Of Ariel Avrech When I was reading this profile of the late Ner Israel yeshiva bocher Ariel Avrech, I was especially struck how this person tried to provoke Ariel and connect to him in ways that were foreign to Ariel but Ariel stayed completely true to himself as a Ben Torah. Then tonight, I went to my usual Monday night shiur and amazingly this personality trait came up in our learning. Gemorah Chagigah 13 A, discussing who can be taught the mysteries of the 'chariot,' you know from Ezekiel. So 20 lines from the bottom, there's an opinion that this knowledge can only be taught to someone 'shelibo doeg b'kirbo' (what does this mean?). The interesting part of this phrase is what the word 'doeg' means in this context (what does it mean?). If you look at Rashi on this (9 lines from the top) he in explaining these lines, seemed to me to be describing the traits that Luke thought he found in Ariel. I had to stop the shiur and tell the group about Ariel and this incredible trait that I had just read about today that the Gemerah and rashi held in such high esteem that it made the person worthy of understanding the highest mysteries. Luke Interrogatory With Young Publicist I tend towards the obsessive compulsive. This evening, I met a 23 year old female publicist. In the course of a two hour interrogation that makes what happened in Abu Ghraib look like an Oprah Winfrey interview, I asked her about 100 questions. I just couldn't stop. I am truly a sick man. Emmanuelle Richard and Cathy Seipp (who were saddened by my "She" moan below) had long since fled by the time Tracy and I closed the bar. The last time I had this much social intercourse with a woman this young was when I was half my age. I took a LACMA official to task over the lack of humor in museum plaques and brochures. The utter solemnity of these arty organizations make Orthodox Judaism sound like Richard Pryor. Emmanuelle Richard writes: "Luke's colourful fantasies, delicious Cosmopolitans, entertaining conversions with an editrix about lawyers eager to be dominated when they come home, the tale of a cross-dressing director buying green plants... What a fun party!" Cathy Seipp writes:
Dear friends, our time together has been far too short. Your generosity and kindness has been untold. Perhaps only a picture can give you an idea of the way I've experienced this past week (from the documentary GIVE ME YOUR SOUL). The most surprising thing about this past week has been how nuts I went. The least surprising was the hostile reaction. Where do we go from here? Lukeford.net. Fellow Torah Jews, our time together has inspired me to undertake a mammoth project. I am in the process of gathering together all ethical Jewish laws to publish in a slim pocket-sized book. To do this, I will need time to digest the Tanach, Talmud, and law codes of our sacred faith. I must therefore set aside more lucrative and pleasurable pursuits for my focused journey into Torah. You can send your Paypal donations to this paypal account. I want to create a single dramatic unity to my varied posts. I can do this in only two words: Andy Kaufman. Cathy Seipp writes Protocols:
X writes: "Luke, considering the anger of many bloggers towards you, and their comments on this site, are you sure want ALL Jews owning guns?" Kin the Gun Owning Jew writes: "Didn't anyone ever teach you gun saftey 101? Never put your finger on the trigger unless you're gonna pull it. Sheesh..." Prickish writes Steven I. Weiss, owner of Protocols:
Reb Yudel writes: "Which raises the question: What would the Rav had blogged?" Clogger writes:
Luke says: "I was a little over the top this past week and a tad out of control and a bit of a source of semantic pollution. I apologize. I like to laugh but most of the things I laugh at are cruel. As Malcom Muggeridge (?) said, tasteful humor is like a chaste whore." Ex writes:
Sandy Hedrin writes: "Phillip Roth made it respectable for Jewish men in certain circles to ditch the Jewess in favor of the shiksa. He is thus guilty of the non-birth of countless Jewish children who might otherwise have been sired by these men. It is no accident that the years following his books were years in which Jewish women were forced into the sin of feminism (and its mistress, lesbianism) and self-selected infecundity. Phillip Roth helped cut the branches of countless Jewish families off the Jewish tree of life." She She was everything he was not. She had the big job at the big newspaper. He wrote for his own website. She was cute and he was ugly. She was sophisticated and he was clumsy. She smiled and he grimaced. She earned several times what he did. She was probably married and he'd probably never marry. He wanted to ask her out. He wanted to tickle her. He wanted to sleep with her. He wanted her love and respect. He wanted to protect her. He wanted to inform her. He wanted to point her in the right direction. He wanted her. She. My Mom Will Soothe Your Rage I've finally had a chance to read the comments on the Protocols blog. I detect, however subtly disguised, a certain rage. It came as a shock as my Messianic synagogue has a more Christlike tone. I have a solution I'd like to offer those of you lacking peace of mind -- my mother. Yes, my mom will be glad to soothe your raging hormones. Her books include: What's Wrong With My Hormones, Listening To Your Hormones, Managing Terminal Illness. My sister, Ele--- Ford, a barrister in Brisbane, will sell you soothing mangoes. My father, Dr. Desmond Ford, has a message for you: "The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let those who hear say, “Come!” Let those who are thirsty come; and let all who wish take the free gift of the water of life."
"Seven Trumpets of Revelation" is one of my dad's best sermons. My dad's books include: Physicians of the soul: God's prophets through the ages. It ranks right up there with Abraham Joshua Heschel's work but with a different, more Christlike, tone. Scroll to bottom of this page to see pictures of the happy Ford family. Remember, all my family are goyim and they are not used to rude Jews. They never met one until I became one. Colin Powell's A Moron I loathe this man. He's now apologizing to the Arab world for the abuse of a few Iraqi prisoners by Americans in the Abu Ghraib prison. "I understand apologies to all Iraqis, but not to all Arabs," says Dennis Prager. "This [reflects] the contempt that many in the West feel for the Arab. They are children. We don't have the same moral demands of them than we do of Americans. I respect the Arab world. Therefore, I make the same moral demands on them that I do on us." If the Arab world is a collective that needs to be apologized to, then the Arab world is a collective that has much to apologize for, notes Dennis Prager on his radio show today. The Arab world has far more to apologize to the West for than vice versa. Except for the US, Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak would be strung up in Cairo like Mussolini. It was the US that rescued Kuwait in 1991 from Saddam Hussein. Powell opposed both wars against Iraq (1991, 2003). Powell's an appeaser of evil. Is the Arab world embarrassed about what Saudis did to America on 9/11? Where are the Islamic protests against terrorism? We should stop cowering before the Arab Islamic world. They are our enemy. Where are the honorable Muslims? Why aren't they demonstrating against the slaughter of Nick Berg? If Christians or Jews did anything similar, Christians and Jews would fall all over themselves to say this is not authentic religion. Author Karen Armstrong and her ilk expect nothing of Muslims. Only of Christians and Jews. To scream "God is great," while slowly severing the head of a man who came to Iraq to help Iraqis... Why is there no Islamic protest? Why is the liberal news media more obsessed with the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by Americans than the beheading of an American by Islamic terrorists? What Makes For A Ben Torah? I've received numerous discrete inquiries for my thoughts on what makes a talmid chacham (Talmud scholar) and gadol (great man). In no particular order: * Constantly reviews shas, learns many blatt per day, and knows how to quote it. * Constantly reviews Tanach and Misnayot * Versatility, all-round (bikuyus, lomdus, psak). * Devotes time each day to Shulchan Aruch. * Knows limudei chol reasonably * Is not comformist in personality and knows the difference between frum, charedi and Torah. He fights constantly against his nature. Doesn't equate yeshivish with correct. Knows that today's yeshivos are for the masses. * Is not afraid to stand up for the honor of the Torah and give mussar. Feels a responsibility to teach others. Lives with passion. * Gets things done fast. Doesn't waste time explaining. * Correct emphasis. Knows that ehrilich is more important than frum. * Admits the truth, even when he goes against his earlier opinion. * Follows my example. I want to thank Rabbi Gadol for the excellent points above. Please add your own thoughts via Email. Tales of the Gedolim I've devoted my life to studying Rav Rabbi Dr Yosef B. Soloveitchik. I hate to say this about a Torah scholar, but I am troubled. I look around me today and I see that in co-ed purportedly Orthodox day schools, drug use and sexual immorality are rife. The Rav was a champion of co-ed schools (though, thank G-d, not of drug use and sexual immorality). Many "talmidim" of Rabbi S. say that he approved of mixed boys and girls education! An obvious abomination which even many goyim are strongly against (see Even Haezer 21:1). It's know that Rabbi S. gave regular lectures at the co-ed Maimonidies school in Boston, which remains defiantly and even proudly co-ed to this day!!! It seems that the masses of the Modern Orthodox go to movies (see Mishnah Berurah 307:59) and that the Rav himself went to movies (see Yoreah Deah 246:8). Many "talmidim" of Rabbi Soloveitchik, and almost all Modern Orthodox, see no problem at all with reading any kind of sifrei minut and apikorsut. They say that "The Rav" expected that we know "Rudolf Otto and Immanuel Kant as well as (lehavdil) Nachmanidies and Maimonidies! (Haskel Lookstein in Jewish Action, Spring 2003). This despite the severity of the Rambam AZ 2:2-3! A few weeks ago, I was given a book called "Five Drashot" by Rabbi S. and to this day I had been unable to look at it because of many pressing concerns. Just today, through Protocols, I was asked to look at it by students who learned in Eretz Yisrael and they are surprised to discover an entire bold hashkafah which is at odds with all of the Gedolei Yisrael (such as the holy Chofetz Chaim, R. Chaim Ozer, the Chazon Ish) and especially at odds with his entire family (the Bais Halevi, Rav Chaim Brisker, and the Brisker Rav at"l). This hashkafa differs as regards to the entire existence of Am Yisrael as guided by Hasehm, as well as the life of the individual, and you have asked what one should think of this. I must say that after I have had the opportunity to read this book, I am sorry that I had not read these things earlier (because much harm and weakening of Am Yisrael would have thereby been avoided). I am astonished at those who saw these ideas and did not protest, and thereby gave many people room to err. Silence implies consent. (Gitten 56A) Rabbi S.'s shittah and psak are an utter distortion of Da'as Torah. Moreover, he simply invented from his heart a bizarre idea of drush about Yosef HaTzaddik who represented the Mizrachi or Modern Orthodox, and the shevatim who represented Agudas Yisrael were wrong, adn what would the entire Olam Hatorah and all the holy Gedolei Yisrael have done after the war without the Mizrachi who are famous for their desecration of Torah. Although it is difficult for me to write this, it is even more difficult for me to be silent in the face of the desecration of Torah rampant on this very website. In conclusion, I would like to thank Rav Shach's lecture True Ahavat Yisrael from Michtavim U'Maamarim (vol. 4, #320) for giving me the strength to persevere in these trying times. The Best Of Lukeford.net In loving memory of yeshiva bocher Ariel Avrech of Baltimore's Ner Israel Straight Talk: My Dilemma As an Orthodox Jewish Woman. An interview with Sally Berkovic. Israelis (Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus) and Russian Jews in Hollywood Jewish journalist Ivor Davis The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch. An interview with author Sue Fishkoff. Jews vs Jew. An interview with author Samuel Freedman. What The New York Times Tells Us About Ourselves. Chats with Ari L. Goldman. The Ultimate Mickey Kaus Interview. A peak at the secret life of a tzaddik. Amy Klein, managing editor of the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles. Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald. My best interview ever. Douglas Rushkoff, Nothing Sacred. Catherine Seipp, Jewish journalist. Israel Shahak, critic of Orthodox Judaism. Journalist Sheldon Teitelbaum reflects on working for Virtual Jerusalem. Jonathan Tobin, editor of Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. Jewish author, screenwriter, essayist Michael Tolkin. Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic. Paul Wilkes, author of the 1994 book, And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation. Author Lauren Winner - convert to Orthodox Judaism who moved on to Christianity. Jews in Hollywood. A Blessedly Sheltered Life One Shabbos in the summer of 2001, I was at the Happy Minyan at Beth Jacob. The head rabbi, newcomer Steven Weil, came down and gave a talk on that week's Torah portion (where the elders of a community, after a stranger has been murdered in their midst, slaughter a heifer to atone for not having insured the sanctity of their community). Rabbi Weil gave a convincing talk on how shul has to be a safe place. Those who endanger the community must be drummed out. I believe he is absolutely right. Predators must be drummed out. Rabbi Weil detailed the extensive work his shul goes to investigate those who might pose a danger. Private detectives and psychologists are sometimes employed. The board fasts before decreeing that someone is to be banned from the shul. At the time, about two dozen persons had been banned during Rabbi Weil's few months at the shul. His predecessor, Abner Weiss, did not ban people at anything like this rate. Ironically, after Rabbi Weiss (now looking after an Orthodox shul in Westwood) divorced his longtime wife and returned to Los Angeles, he too was banned from Beth Jacob by Rabbi Weil. Rabbi Weil happens to be among my favorite teachers of Torah. He grew up on a cow farm and his father is Conservative. If you go in Rabbi Weil's office, you will see pictures of him covering two walls. I've never seen a rabbi with so many pictures of himself in his office. He has two pictures of himself with Al Gore, one with Joseph Lieberman, one with President and Laura Bush. Rabbi Weil (Republican) has an MBA, six kids and a wife (Democrat) who wears such a long sheitel that she looks charedi (she published a superb essay in a new book about Orthodox women covering their hair). The most shocking thing in Rabbi Weil's office is a picture of his father's marriage where the two bridesmaids are totally sleaveless. I've never seen such a thing, but then I've led a blessedly sheltered life. It's Time To Beat People Up For The Glory Of God In many parts of Israel, Jews won't violate the Torah publicly for fear of being beaten up. This has a wonderful ability to concentrate the mind. I'm starting up a gang of Torah-observant Jews who will beat up other Jews who violate the Torah. Up with Torah vigilantism. Thus Torah observance and fear of God will flourish. I'm not sure yet what our outfits will be and who else will be in it. Most charedim won't commit violence against Torah desecrators these days because they are too apathetic, just like most Christians won't go out of their way to save the souls of non-Christians. Even though they go around in long coats and beards, they don't truly care about Torah. The late Rabbi Meir Kahane was a great Torah scholar. He studied at Mir Yeshiva in Israel, one of the country's top three. I've learned to think better of the man. Rabbi Avigdor Miller said publicly that Rabbi Meir Kahane was killed by the Reform. It was a put-up job to make it look like an Arab. The Reform were his sworn enemies. I dunno if it was the Jewish Federation or some radical left wing advocates of assimilation. I'm wondering if the Jewish Federations are buying off the Orthodox rabbis to go out on a limb for gay marriage. I found this shocking in the Jewish Journal cover story:
Wow, for an Orthodox rabbi to be even quoted in such a story is an enormous risk for an Orthodox rabbi's reputation. No Orthodox synagogues can allow members to live together out of wedlock or to publicly practice homosexuality. Knives Out For Dennis Prager At UJ Many faculty and staff at the left-leaning University of Judaism hold a special animus for Dennis Prager. He gets under their skin in a way Orthodox rabbis do not. Over the past few days, I heard several folks connected with UJ pour scorn on Prager's performance at the same sex debate last week. One asserted that Prager should not argue Torah with Rabbi Elliott Dorff who's "a great Bible scholar." Never mind that nobody on the panel, including R. Dorff, was a Bible scholar. Never mind that Rabbi Dorff is an ethicist and has never published an original work of Bible scholarship. Never mind that neither R. Dorff nor anyone on the panel was literate in the dozen essential languages of the ancient Near East. Tales of the Gedolim
Boosters For Self Esteem The administrator was the swaggeringly macho Israeli Dean of admissions. Reb writes: "Luke: Did you ever hear anything about a Dean at UJ in Bel Air sleeping with one of his female students, and not being penalized? Even after she was put into a coma by their frolicking? Anything?" Look, he who has not knocked a chick into a coma during rough sex, let him throw the first stone. Why this bloodthirsty quest for vengeance? So he had sex with a student and put her into a coma. Isn't it time for us to forgive and forget? It sounds like this Dean really fell for the girl in a big way. Those who have never been a fool for love, let them throw the first stone. I know there have been fleeting moments in my life when I fell off the derech, and, frankly, it was only the inspiration of this blog, that brought me back. This is not the first time I've heard about inappropriate relations between UJ leaders and female students. One woman told me she was in UJ's rabbinics program. She told me was abused by a leader in that program and consequently dropped out. In its article, the Jewish Journal does not investigate inappropriate relationships between UJ faculty/staff and students. Instead it concentrates on how good institutions like UJ can survive scandal. I believe that is a much healthier focus and I would like to see our discussion shift in that direction. So you have a sex scandal at your school or shul? You have students who make and distribute a porn video starring a freshman girl and two of her male friends, and your administrators don't find out until a year after the movie began distribution. Let's not point fingers. Let us rather try to improve the self esteem of our Jewish youth and our Jewish leaders so they will be less susceptible to the sins of the flesh. Let's concentrate on the lessons in self esteem the Milken High scandal teaches. Every day, in every way, we are getting better and better. If we booted all these rabbis who sexually preyed on the vulnerable, we might not have many rabbis left. Perhaps we should consider these tawdry escapes as a just compensation for low rabbinic salaries? If I were cynical, I would allege that in non-Orthodox institutions of higher learning, sexual access to the female students is one of the perqs of faculty and administration, along with a parking space and a faculty cafeteria. It's a compensation for the lack of salary and the lack of serious religious community. Hey, if you don't believe the Torah comes from God, why not? All is permitted. But I'm not cynical. And I don't believe that cynicism has any place on this website. Email: "What's the deal with R' Daniel Lapin. I have some relatives who adore him, but I've seen some posts hinting to some scandal involving him years ago in California. Is there basis to these claims?" About 14 years ago while he lived in Venice, CA, Rabbi Daniel Lapin of the Pacific Jewish Center (started with Michael Medved) started a real estate trust. It went broke a couple of years later. Rabbi Lapin did nothing legally wrong. It was economic failure, not economic fraud. Remember how the (Paul) Reichmans went bankrupt with Canary Wharf in London? That was failure, not fraud. People tend to either love or hate Rabbi Daniel Lapin. He's a polarizer. I'm in the camp of those who adore him. Author David Klinghoffer writes admiringly about Daniel Lapin in his book, Lord Will Gather Me in: My Journey to Jewish Orthodoxy. Some of the anger at Rabbi Lapin is because he marches to the beat of his own drummer and heartily criticizes liberal Jews and their organizations. You can count me among those who adore the Rabbi Lapins (there are three rabbi brothers including David who heads a yeshiva in Washington DC and a brother who leads San Jose's Orthodox shul). Rabbi Daniel tends to attract an intense following that many would describe as a cult (charismatic leader who exerts unusual control over his followers based on his religious and personal powers). For those who've moved out of it, it has been painful and many are bitter. I've heard a similar sort of bitterness from those who've moved out of Aish HaTorah (usually not by their choice). Rabbi Daniel Lapin never took a salary while working for Pacific Jewish Center. He never told people to go sell flowers on the Venice Boardwalk to raise money. R. Lapin clashed with many rabbis because of his unique views and approach. He was beholden to nobody as he never took a salary from the Jewish community. He was friends with Jerry Falwell. He supported much of the Christian right. Obviously that is going to rub many rabbis the wrong way. LL writes: "About the allegations against [R. Daniel] Lapin, check the LA Times, Bnei Brith Messenger (now defunct), and the Valley News and Greensheets from those years 1973-80." Rabbi Lapin had ties to slum lord and Holocaust survivor Alexander Spitzer (LAT 3/29/89, 7/13/89, 7/22/89). R. Lapin now runs Towardtradition.org. A poster claiming to be an ex-member of Rabbi Lapin's Pacific Jewish Center writes to Protocols:
Heartwarming Stories For The Whole Family About Movie Producer Lynda Obst Sarah Grossman Lewis, now a book indexer in Maine, writes:
Insult-happy Web guns fall quiet. Charles Johnson at LittleGreenFootballs.com responds. A yeshiva student writes Luke:
Christian Cool and the New Generation Gap (NYT) I went to Friday Night Live to win converts to Orthodoxy. I met a beautiful Russian wearing a pink cast on her arm that matched her pink outfit. I did not talk to her too long because I noticed an acquaintance of mine had made a previous move on her and I thought it would be rude of me to come between them. Saturday morning, my rabbi preached that it is wrong to make Iraqi prisoners unwitting stars of American p-rn videos. "I hate sermons on politics," said a friend. Over Shabbos, I breezed through the last 300 pages of Professor Johnathan D. Sarna's new book, American Judaism, and read its best lines off to my friends in shul: * "Ritual consumption" of wine on the part of Jews skyrocketed during these years as Prohibition created, in the words of one cynical inspector, "a remarkable increase in the thirst for religion." Judging from official records, in fact, "blessing the fruit of the vine" became during Prohibition the most widely and scrupulously observed of all Jewish religious practices. (Pg. 218) * A prominent Birmingham rabbi, who later modified his views, told a meeting of the southeast region of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1956 that he "wouldn't risk one hair on the head of one of my members for the life of every shvartzeh [black] in this state." (Pg. 309) Author Stephen Bloom writes: "Luke, another interesting take on the evolving story of Postville, journalism, writers' perceptions. I enjoyed Jennie Rothenberg's comments. She really presented herself in a strong and (to me) fascinating manner. You got at the difference between her mission as a journalist and mine." Thrilling Yeshiva University vs Chovevei Torah Cricket Match Comes Down To Final Ball Yeshiva University (YU) and Chovevei Torah (CT) clashed in a thrilling one day cricket match Sunday broadcast around the world on Fox Sports. Playing on YU’s home turf, Rabbi Hershel Schacter (who says that plastic utensils can be kashered in boiling water) won the toss and sent R. Avi Weiss’s team in to bat. As the match began, the temperature was a muggy 85 degrees. R. Shachter led a blistering pace attack that included R. Yosef Blau, R. J. David Bleich, and R. Daniel Z. Feldman. He arrayed his team in an attacking mode with four slips and a silly mid-off. Thundering in from the West End with the new ball, R. Shachter had batsmen R. Dovid Weiss and rabbinical student Sam Feinsmith on the defensive from the first over. Playing off the back foot, they did not manage a single run until the third ball of the second over. Bowling a strict line and length, R. Blau, with his Rosh Yeshivah, kept CT to just four runs after four overs. The fifth over will not be forgotten by any member of the 15,000 strong Orthodox crowd. Sprinting in, pouring it on with more exertion than he’s show since his bachelor days of dating several women in one day, R. Schachter bowled at over 100 miles per hour. On his first ball, a full toss, he beat the bat of R. Dovid and tore the middle wicket out of the ground before being mobbed by his tzitzit wearing teammates. R. Nathaniel Helfgot strode to the wicket. With the crowd on its feet, R. Shachter bowled short. Instinctively, R. Helfot hooked the ball and sent it flying to the boundary where an energetic R. Meir Goldwicht circled under it for the big catch and CT was reeling. Bending his back for a hat trick, R. Shachter bowled short to the next batsman R. Saul Berman, who ducked to get out of the way. Unfortunately for him, the ball flew off his hand and right to the keeper R. Norman Lamm. CT was in shambles at 3-5. R. Avi Weiss strode to the wicket and the crowd became quiet. R. Shachter stared at him for a few seconds and then turned away. Adjusting his field for the kill, R. Shachter carried on with his deadly bodyline approach, bowling short. With the ball rising off the turf and racing on to his head at 100mph, R. Weiss did not flinch before flicking the ball with his wrist over the boundary for six. CT supporters went wild. After 20 overs, bruised and weary, R. Weiss was on 35 and CT was four wickets down for 55. In a productive partnership of 163, R. Weiss and R. Dov Linzer took CT to a total of 227 runs for fifty overs. R. Weiss was greeted by standing applause when he made his century, finishing with 113 runs. With the wicket starting to turn, R. Weiss employed his spin bowlers to devastating effect, bowling out the first five YU batsmen for just 34 runs. Then all-rounder R. Shachter strode in and the battle was joined. With just one ball left, YU trailed by three runs. R. Shachter, at 105, was on strike. R. Weiss jogged up to the wicket and bowled under hand. Throwing his bat away in disgust, R. Shacter marched angrily off the field, saying it “was just not cricket.” |
