I was fascinated by the Meir Kin case. Not the messy details of the divorce, but the side issue of three Modern Orthodox shuls in Pico-Robertson repeatedly sending their members to picket outside the home of Meir Kin’s parents.
I love Bnai David-Judea, Beth Jacob and Young Israel of Century City. I hold them close to my heart and I know they love me in return. I’ve sung praises to God in these holy places. I’ve studied sacred text. I’ve picked up girls.
So I was taken aback to see these shuls sending off their troops to picket outside a Jew’s home over a messy divorce case.
What if I met a girl at a Torah study, and we then retired to a coffee shop to study these lofty issues in greater depth, and then I walked her home, and then at the doorstep, I leaned in for a kiss to seal our studies and she said, "Get away from me you filthy old pervert"?
What then?
What if the next day, all these Jews started picketing outside my hovel and calling me a predator when really I’m just a guy who likes to kiss cute girls (who are over 18)?
Oy, the shame!
God made me this way!
When I think of the pickets outside Meir Kin’s parents home, I wonder if this is what Samson Raphael Hirsch had in mind when he invented Modern Orthodoxy?
Why are these Modern Orthodox shuls marching in lockstep with the directions of the haredi-dominated Rabbinical Council of California?
Here is a snazzy-looking website setting forward the RCC’s case against Meir Kin. It even lists the address of his residence. I wonder how all the RCC rabbis, and all the rabbis of the shuls that support the RCC on this matter, would feel if their home addresses were put up on websites taking them to task on some matter and pushing people to rally outside their homes?
According to my prayer book, Torah scholars are supposed to increase peace in the world, but in this case it looks like Luke Ford is the voice of sanity.
How crazy is that?
Here is a blog post putting forward Meir Kin’s case.
I’m pretty happy that my blog post ranks higher in Google than the RCC’s site against Meir Kin, but I guess that just shows how unspiritual and temporal-minded I am.
Oy, the shame!
Won’t you kiss me?
Here are some related links: Here and here.
I have no dog in these fights.
I think Rav Herschel Schachter is the leading posek in Modern Orthodoxy.
I heard one of his lectures on dating where he said he’d once dated more than one woman in a day. I have to give him mad props for that!
Stop Luke! Let me wrench this blog post from the gutter for a second. It’s not all about me and my mad cravings for a kiss. I want this blog post to be about higher things. I want to elevate people.
Let’s talk about ORA (Organization for the Resolution of Agunot).
Oy, what I wouldn’t give to be one of their targets? That would mean I’d have been married.
I can only imagine the bliss! Kisses on demand!
From GetOra.com: "ORA operates under the guidance of Rabbi Herschel Schachter, rosh yeshiva at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), and in cooperation with an extensive team of attorneys, rabbis, mental health professionals, and community volunteers."
If ORA says march and sends out emails, every Modern Orthodox and centrist Orthodox shul then automatically sends out emails to its members telling them to follow ORA’s directions? I think that’s how it works.
I assume there’s no independent investigation when Beth Jacob, Bnai David, and YICC send their members out to protest outside a Jew’s home. They just take Rav Schachter’s word for it.
Is that wise?
Rav Schachter is about all we have in America that passes for a Modern Orthodox gadol (not that he’s Modern Orthodox), but he sure says some whacky things, such as that the prime minister of Israel should be shot if he gives away Jerusalem, or maybe that is not so whacky?
Anyway, is this the type of rav you want to obey blindly?
PS. You might say, "Hey Romeo, what about your promise to the he-man woman-haters club?"
I say, I’m sorry Sparky, I have to live my own life.
She doesnt like the tough guys.
They think that they can do anything they please.
But theyre gonna get a surprise,
When she brings them to their knees.
cus she doesnt like the rough guys.
They act like they can have any girl they choose.
Theyve got tricks, but my baby got wise,
So in case you havent heard the news,
She doesnt like the tough guys.
She doesnt like the rough guys.
So find some one you own size,
cus shes not afraid of you.
She doesnt like the tough guys.
She thinks that theyve got brains all where they sit.
They think theyre full of fire,
She thinks theyre full of shit.
